Defining Evil
by selandora
Summary: A mission to capture Itachi and Kisame succeeds and the two missingnin are to be executed. The line between love and hate is thin but the one between good and evil is even thinner as Naruto and Sakura discover. Itasaku
1. Freedom's End

**Chapter 1: The End of Freedom**

**Woohoo. Selandora rewrote this story and realized that the introductory paragraph was crappy so here we go again. I'm sure, if you've read this story once before, you know what happens in the beginning and…what happens in the end. For those who don't know…well, it's complicated and I'm not going to waste my time telling you here.**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

A climax at the beginning of a story isn't always practical, but that's what happened here. Yeah, yeah, I know, weird huh? Of course, the ending of this story isn't exactly what you'd expect either but…anyways. Let's get back to the beginning.

The forest was tense, the animals silent, as if they knew exactly what I was doing so far from Konoha. A stealthy wind blew and it sneaked its way around the trees, being careful so as not to disturb the fragile silence created. The leaves were still and totally oblivious to everything around them, having not so much as rustled. The moon was a narrow slit in the dark sky; as if scrutinizing the scene below it unfold while the stars around it gleamed brilliantly, sinisterly, and the smell of fresh rain bombarded my senses.

Any other day, I would have loved walking through this forest. Usually, it was a place that breathed calm and peace away from the hustle and bustle of Konoha but now…the very atmosphere of the forest had changed into something different, something _foreboding_.

And it befitted the mission.

"_Any sign of __**Ice Prince?**__" _Shikamaru's lazy drawl buzzed in my ear.

I jumped at the sound and cursed mentally, reaching up to turn the volume down on my transparent headpiece. I pressed a tiny button on it and I whispered quietly into it, being more cautious than usual, _"__**Trickster**__ here, no sign of __**Ice Prince**__. That bastard's damn elusive."_

"_S-sorry __**Silhouette-san**__, I haven't seen him yet…__**Snow White **__over."_

"_No sign of the bastard yet, __**Foxface **__over."_

"_No luck here either, it's __**Tinkerbell **__by the way."_

There was an exasperated sigh in the headpiece, _"Your codename isn't __**Tinkerbell**__, don't complicate things because that's just troublesome."_

"_But I have such a gay codename! I don't want to be called __**Mindsweeper**__! It's the name of a game, damn it!"_

"_The game is called _minesweeper, _**Tinkerbell."**_

"_Haha! I knew you'd give in sooner or later."_

"_Sorry to break up your flirting but __**Sushiman **__just engaged me in battle. __**Trickster**__**Ice Prince **__is headed your way. __**Scarecrow **__out," _Kakashi's smooth, to die for voice rang in my ear and I stiffened in shock.

He was headed _my _way? What was I supposed to do?! I was a healer and an illusionist. I wasn't a strong fighter! My tricks wouldn't deceive Itachi while he had the Mangekyou Sharingan!

_Why me?!_

"_W-What are my orders?" _I asked nervously, dropping my voice to a barely audible level, terrified that if I spoke any louder, Itachi or rather, _**Ice Prince**_, would hear me.

"_Do not under any circumstances engage __**Ice Prince **__in battle. Wait for __**Foxface **__and myself. __**Snow White **__and __**Tinkerbell**__, go find __**Scarecrow **__and help him with __**Sushiman,**__" _Shikamaru gave out precise instructions for our battle strategy.

"_I understand," _I replied meekly and removed my trembling hand from my earpiece.

"_Oh, and __**Trickster?**__" _Naruto's usually loud and hyper voice was quiet on the other end. _"Don't look in his eyes if he catches up with you. If he tries to fight you, run and find us."_

"_I know that! I'm not an idiot!" _I snapped back, my anxiety made me edgy and I knew everyone could tell.

It still hadn't completely dawned on me yet.

Uchiha Itachi.

**The **Uchiha Itachi was headed my way. The Uchiha Itachi, the S-class criminal, cold blooded killer, Master Sharingan user we were ordered to capture.

**The **Uchiha Itachi who would inevitably fight me…and kill me.

I jumped down from the wrinkled if not sturdy branch I lingered hesitantly upon. My vision was clouded in fear and I landed funnily, twisting my ankle on a protruding gnarled root. I bit down ferociously on my lip to prevent myself from crying out in pain.

Damn. I hadn't even met him and I was injured already.

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

The purple velvet bag swung reassuringly at my side, beating my muscled thigh with every reluctant step I took. A vanilla scent wafted up from the bag, overpowering everything else I could smell and I wondered briefly where Kisame was. If he had gone and killed himself, it would most certainly not be in my best interest. Then again, had he done so, my pay would be doubled for everything I did until I was given a new partner and I would have so much an easier time without that reckless shark relation hanging about.

It was _that _time again, and I had convinced our leader that this personal matter would only take a short while to be done with. Kisame, of course, had to insist upon coming with me to Konoha, explaining that someone had to bring my body back.

And…because Kisame had come I had to tell him what I was planning to do in Konoha. He was certainly surprised by the reason (as was I actually, the first time I went) but he came with me anyways.

Speed was of the essence and we _had _to get to Konoha in three days…or else I would miss it…

Nothing crunched underfoot, I demanded total silence of the forest and I was given such without argument. The fresh dewdrops seemed to freeze with my passing, not daring to so much as drip. My bamboo labourer's hat was pulled down low over my dark red eyes and the small silver bell attached to it tinkled eerily; being the only sound in the whole forest. There was no wind at all and I didn't object; wind only made my annoying cloak rustle and fooled around with your ability to sense people.

Something in the trees rustled and for a moment, I stopped abruptly. It couldn't be the wind and from what I knew all the animals in this area certainly weren't nocturnal which could only mean one thing…

Someone was in the area.

I could sense no chakra signature at all and anticipated this person's arrival. There weren't many who could totally conceal their chakra from me, and to have that much control would only mark them as a formidable foe.

Perhaps I had found someone worth fighting at last.

I kept walking, pretending nothing had happened and pulled the hat down lower over my eyes to hide my pale face. My slender calloused hand snaked up to grasp the silver chain necklace around my neck and I rubbed my thumb methodically over each of the coloured beads in turn; it had become something of a habit since the Uchiha Massacre. I kept on walking, concentrating solely on sensing the person behind me. Their movement were few and they dragged their feet slightly, as if they were reluctant to follow me at all. The person following me didn't seem to have the slightest intention of attacking and I sighed inwardly, realizing that I would have to be the one to attack first.

I sat down at the base of an old gnarled tree and from within the folds of my cloak pulled out a hard leather water flask, hiding a pair of shuriken behind it. I pulled out the cork of the flask and it dropped lifelessly, hanging by a thread, and I took a long healthy swig from the flask. The shinobi took the bait, just as I had known he would, and I heard a soft, barely inaudible thump from somewhere to my right. I caught a few quiet murmurs and guessed that this ninja was talking on a radio headset, which meant that there was more than one of them…good. The one annoying thing was that the shinobi's voice was so quiet I couldn't figure out if it was a woman or a man.

But, in the end it wasn't really important.

I would still kill them regardless.

"_This is __**Trickster **__here, __**Ice Prince **__has stopped. What are my orders?" _Trickster murmured into their headset. My eyes narrowed at the mention of the codename.

Ice Prince?

What insolence.

"_O-Okay…no, I don't think I'm in any immediate danger…he doesn't seem to have noticed me," _Trickster informed their team mates.

I realized that I wasn't quite keeping up to my reputation of a heartless, cold killer if I allowed such an inferior a false sense of security. I was absolutely certain that this person was going to die a slow, painful death.

I removed my bamboo hat, discarding it carelessly, making sure to mute the silver bell before I did so, and moulded chakra to my feet, sprinting over to the ninja in barely a second. It was living evidence that I still had my near legendary demonic speed, if this person lived to tell the tale anyways. I concealed my chakra from the ninja, surprise attacks were always preferable. The shinobi in question was shorter than me, their body petite. I guessed it was a woman from the delicate way she held herself and the black hairnet she wore. She hadn't noticed me, she had her back to me and she looked around the tree trunk she was hidden behind.

"_Shit! He moved!" _She swore into her headset and I decided it was time to alert her of my presence.

I rid myself of the chakra concealment and the full intensity of it must have been like a slap in the face, because she certainly turned around sharply. She seemed paralyzed to the spot and I shoved her to the tree, using my body to pin her there, feeling the cold of her hard white ANBU uniform seep through my Akatsuki cloak. I felt her leg move as she tried to drag her knee up to hit me but I twisted my legs around hers, immobilizing them. I held both her wrists firmly above her head and she arched her back the slightest bit at the stretch. She tensed at the close proximity and tried to flatten herself against the tree trunk, obviously uncomfortable with the closeness of our heated bodies.

I spotted the transparent headpiece and its coiling wire that trailed down her slim, pale neck. I pulled it out of her ear, ignoring the loud ripping sound as the scotch tape keeping it in place was pulled off brutally, and she inhaled sharply at the stinging pain. I now had only one hand keeping her arms pinned above her and she struggled wildly against it but to no avail. I put the headpiece in between my teeth for a moment before pulling out a sharp kunai from within the folds of my cloak and pressed it against her neck hard, she did the smart thing and stopped struggling. The razor blade of the kunai drew a painful bead of crimson blood. I watched it dart down her neck, to her collarbone until it disappeared underneath her dark shirt and white armour. I pressed a small button on her headpiece and brought it to my mouth speaking into it.

"_This is __**Ice Prince **__here…__**Trickster **__is my captive from now on. Unless you decide to give up your search, I will kill her …" _

_**Haruno Sakura**_

The both of us waited for an answer, one of us anxious while the other seemed to revel in what little entertainment this brought. I was torn between wanting to be rescued and sacrificing myself for the mission's sake but…in the very nature of my weakness, I was scared to die…even if it was for my friends. I felt my eyes glaze over with self hatred and anger but I refused to cry, I had stopped that a long time ago. Itachi's dark red eyes bored into me and I fought the tempting impulse to look at them, the only thing I could do in a situation like this.

"_So? What's your decision?" _Itachi demanded, his hold on my slim wrists unconsciously tightened until I could feel his blunt nails breaking my skin. I hissed at the pain and the grip loosened slightly but it was still strong enough to hold me there.

The next person's words cut me like a knife, straight to the bone.

"_Do what you want with her. We're coming for you no matter what," _Kakashi's for once solemn voice rang through on the headpiece like a funeral knoll.

My jade green eyes widened in shock, hurt and betrayal at Kakashi, at my _teacher's_, answer and Itachi said nothing for a few moments. I half expected Naruto to interfere wildly and scream at Kakashi but his scream of defiance never came. Nobody spoke up for me…they had all agreed to leave me to die.

My team would sacrifice my life for Itachi's? After…after everything we had been through?

Was I just a useless tool?

Then, I berated myself for that. All ninja were tools…

Itachi reanimated himself all of a sudden as he shifted our positions slightly, looping his arms underneath my armpits to meet in front of my neck. He gripped my chin tightly with one hand and pressed his forehead against my ANBU half-mask (the previous masks had been altered. Mission orders had been muted by the mask so accidents happened), but I closed my eyes, remembering Naruto's words.

"Girl, open your eyes," Itachi hissed at me and as the grip on my chin became almost unbearable, my jade green eyes snapped open quickly. I fought to close my wide open eyes again but his crimson eyes had me trapped, I couldn't tear my eyes away from him.

"Scream," He ordered me and when I didn't comply, he lowered his head to nip at the junction where my neck and shoulder met. I shivered under the feel of his slightly chapped lips and heard a click in my ear as he activated the headpiece again.

He bit down ferociously on my collar bone, drawing blood, and my entire body jolted underneath his at the unexpected pain. I groaned quietly and Itachi seemed to grow impatient with me. There was a sharp pain in my side and I felt myself grow light headed from the sensation; he must have stabbed me with a kunai.

And, it just sort of slipped out when I whimpered, "Naruto…"

I felt Itachi smirk against my bruised skin and in that instant; I hated him with my entire being. I heard a small click as he removed his hand from my headpiece, letting it drop to the floor. I winced as the tape keeping it in place was yanked off sharply and I hung my head ashamedly, hating myself, hating him and hating my team.

The urge to smash my intricately painted ANBU mask into pieces was very tempting all of a sudden. I wasn't worthy enough to don the half mask; I was a pathetic excuse for a ninja…

I could hear Naruto's hurried, frantic voice through the headpiece, _"Sakura-chan! Are you okay?! I'm gonna kill that bastard so-" _

And then it was gone just like that. Itachi had smashed it into the ground with a foot. Suddenly, his heavy pressure disappeared and he was standing a few feet away from me with a calculating look on his face. I was surprised at his sudden release of me and he stood there, looking at me condescendingly.

"Give me a proper fight," Itachi growled at me.

It took a few moments for his words to sink in and I suffered greatly for my few moments of confusion. He had already drawn first blood; my arm was bleeding from a quick but shallow gash. The dark red ANBU insignia was covered in blood and it blended perfectly into the dark crimson colour.

He was fast.

Really fast.

His strength was legendary, yes, but it was very different hearing about it and then experiencing it first hand. I pulled out my kunai and tried my best to defend myself, but to no avail. His merciless attacks continued and he slashed at me four more times in quick succession. I realized grimly that he was simply toying with me.

"I see that the standard of Konoha ANBU is dropping," His cold, baritone voice rang throughout the forest, making it impossible for me to pinpoint where exactly he was.

"Just give up. You'll never become stronger than you are now...a pathetic excuse for a ninja," He taunted me in his emotionless voice.

His words stung and I was thankful for the ANBU mask. But his words brought out an inner strength as well.

He was…he was just telling me to give it all up? All of this…that I had worked so hard for?

He was telling me I could just forget about it?

I sent the slightest bit of chakra to my jade eyes, enhancing my ability to see more clearly and flipped out two kunai from my weapon pouch. I took one into either hand, falling into a stance and waited.

"If you don't give up, then I have no other choice but to kill you," Itachi stated flatly and I tried to focus on which direction the voice was coming from. I knew that even if he had manipulated his voice with chakra; I would still be able to pick out where he was even if the lead was very dim.

"I'm surprised you even considered anything different," I retorted hotly, my voice shaking slightly. I retained my battle stance and he said nothing more. I looked about me cautiously. He was sure to strike from where I least expected it so…

Our weapons met in a flurry of white sparks and a loud clang. I inwardly thanked Tsunade-sama for help with my training. It was only because of the barely audible swish of Itachi's cloak that I managed to pinpoint him; it was about as quiet as the sound of a church mouse scurrying across a smooth surface. All medic ninja had to train their ears to hear the sound of irregular breathing or the like.

I could barely suppress Itachi's long, sleek katana as it pressed down against my own X shaped block. I made a little sound of triumph as I pushed his katana back; throwing him off guard for what seemed to be a second or two. I lunged forwards with my kunai and he stepped out of the way; exactly what I had expected him to do.

I slashed viciously with my second kunai to his exposed flank and he dashed out of the way just in time. I cursed as I realized I had only managed to slash his ridiculous cloak and looked around me warily; wondering where he could have gone.

The sound of three senbon needles flying through the air caught my attention and I turned to block them. I did so in quick succession but failed to realize that he had in fact sent _six _senbon needles. What had happened was that he had thrown the first three senbon needles and then the three others behind it. So what happened was; when I raised my kunai to block the first three I lowered my arm instinctively, causing the needles to stab into my arm.

It hurt, yes, but I had no time to pull them out. Itachi didn't seem the sort of person who'd wait for me to pull the needles out and just attack him all over again. All of a sudden, he was in front of me and I blocked once again. His blow this time was harder, much stronger than before, and I skidded all the way backwards as I tried to press against him. I resisted the urge to look up at him and instead looked at our weapons.

And, that was a big mistake.

Our eyes met through the reflective surface of his katana and I found myself unable to tear my eyes away. He had me caught like a fly in a spider's web; I was powerless to move while he had used his Mangekyou Sharingan on me.

Strangely enough, I thought that I should have been scared in such a situation. What, with the evil demented killer about to kill me and all. And I was terrified. I didn't want to die, I wanted to see everyone again, I wanted to get married and have kids, I wanted to find a husband who would love me and…

I saw him reach into his cloak for what was undoubtedly a kunai, never tearing his crimson eyes away from mine. I saw the metal glint out of the corner of my eye and suddenly, I had the sudden urge to laugh, cry and despair at the same time.

So I smiled in a sudden moment of spontaneity, my mind was in a terrified frenzy, and my jade eyes betrayed the ultimate fear I felt.

Itachi's hand faltered at the last moment and for a long moment, we both simply looked through the metal sword at each other. I saw his hand retreat into the thick black cloak.

In a voice that screamed finality and doom, he spoke clearly, "Mangekyou Sharingan; the art of mind torture."

My eyelids grew heavy as they began to droop and although I resisted the temptation to sleep, I was so…so very tired…

A dark sensation washed over me and it felt as though something was strangling me. A haze of dark, swirling red was all I could see half-lidded eyes. I began to fall down as my eyes closed and my body was leaden. There was a loud thump as somebody fell and it was only a few moments later I realized that it was me who had fallen. The air was thicker now, thick with the stifling sensation of power and I felt as though I could choke on it.

And then…a growling, terrifying voice screamed out.

"**Sakura-chan!"**


	2. Wit's Precarious End

**Chapter 2: Wit's Precarious End**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

"**What the **_**hell **_**are you doing?! Run, Sakura!"**

"Sakura-chan…wake up…" A pleading, masculine voice whispered to me from somewhere to my right.

"Kakashi, why hasn't she woken up yet? You only took three days to recover from this, why is Sakura taking a whole week?" Sasuke demanded our ex-teacher; his deep and usually calm voice was stained with the slightest bit of impatience.

"People with Sharingan can resist the Mangekyou Sharingan a little bit…or something like that," Kakashi explained in an almost bored tone, I imagined his slight shrug.

I retained the appearance of sleep for a while longer. I hadn't the strength to face them right now; I could feel the legacy of my nightmare slipping coldly down my pale face. Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi had all seen me cry before but…I didn't want them to see me now.

"But, shouldn't Sakura-chan be able to resist it? Like that one time with Ino at the chuunin exam? Wouldn't her medic-nin skills help or something?" Naruto nagged Kakashi.

I sighed inwardly at Naruto's suggestion. The Mangekyou Sharingan was an _illusionary _technique and bloodline; medical abilities would be of no use against it. Honestly…it was something we learned in the academy!

Sasuke interrupted him rudely and scoffed, "Don't be an idiot. Ino's jutsu is _nothing _like the Mangekyou Sharingan. Sakura can only heal physical wounds, not mental ones."

"I know that! I was just wondering…" Naruto snapped at Sasuke defensively.

"Naruto has a point. Sakura…she's chosen the hardest and probably the most emotionally challenging job out of the three of us. Itachi has most likely used his mind torture jutsu to bring back old painful memories he knows will hurt Sakura the most," Kakashi explained solemnly.

His eyes seemed to glaze over slightly as he continued, "She's the one who's responsible for the lives of others; one mistake could kill a person. No matter how talented she is, there's always somebody she can't save. Itachi is at an obvious advantage over her with the Mangekyou Sharingan. There's more to torture her with."

"Sakura…Sakura-chan really suffers, doesn't she?" Naruto questioned Kakashi quietly and I heard a quiet sigh from Kakashi.

"Do you know when Sakura will wake up?" Sasuke changed the topic quickly.

"Well…I think that's something you should ask Sakura yourself," Kakashi replied bluntly.

My face flushed guiltily and I realized I was busted. I turned very gradually, my wounded side was still very painful, and felt the sting of the bright light through my thin eyelids. I counted to five before I found the courage to open my emerald orbs. The bright light that spilled into my tired eyes caused them to water at its intensity; it came as a big shock. They watered…watered with what? I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time; I was a medic-nin and I couldn't even tell the difference between tears and watery eyes. I closed my eyes again quickly at the pain the light brought and the soothing darkness wrapped around me again.

"Sakura, you're going to have to open your eyes sooner or later," Kakashi reasoned with me and I sighed in defeat, gradually opening my emerald eyes.

When my eyes had adjusted to the light, I think what struck me first was the whiteness of the room I was in. Everywhere I looked, everything was white and sterile, white and pure. The whiteness of the room made me want to close my eyes all over again but Kakashi was right; I had to keep them open and get used to the light again. My throat was sore from lack of use and my tongue felt thick, heavy and useless in my mouth. I looked at Kakashi and his stern reassuring face as his one eye bored into the both of mine.

I opened my mouth to speak and rasped out, "How…how long?"

"You've been out three days," Kakashi informed me quietly and I nodded in acknowledgment.

He handed me a glass of water which had been sitting atop a similarly white bedside table that I was never aware even existed. The room was deathly silent as I pushed myself into a sitting position and rested my back against the white cold steel headboard. My trembling hands took the water from Kakashi and I controlled myself from drinking the water down all in one go; opting for slow and careful sips.

I looked past serious looking Kakashi and concerned Naruto, only wanting to see Sasuke. His pale fatigued face stared stoically back at me but his mismatched eyes seemed to search my green ones for an answer to a near inevitable question I knew he was burning to ask.

Are you okay?

His dark, ebony hair contrasted with his milky white skin but framed it perfectly, as if a master artist had designed it himself. His crescent moon shaped eyebrows and dark lashes made his mismatched eyes (that always seemed to be angry at _something_) stand out even more so than they did already. He was perfect…beautiful…if all but for a single pinkish scar that ran over his right, bright cerulean eye.

At the sight of Sasuke's mismatched eye, I felt my eyes begin to well up with tears; remembering the incident that had changed it forever. Itachi's words rang in my head and although I knew I should have asked about what had happened to the mission; all I could think of was Sasuke's eye.

I closed my eyes as I felt the warm liquid boiling at the corners of my eyes. I did my best to suppress them and smiled half heartedly before opening my eyes again; thinking that I had composed myself. Instead, my tears slipped down my face quickly and I watched as his serious eyes followed their silvery descent down my face intently.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called my name and dived forwards to comfort me. He fell short of me however when Kakashi grabbed him by the scruff of his bright orange and black jacket. He was the only ninja who would wear something so eye catching.

I didn't pay much attention to Kakashi's quiet, murmured lecture but I caught unwanted fragments of the conversation all the same, "Her ordeal…unpredictable how she'll react…suffered…"

"Sa…Sasuke…Naruto…" I whispered both of their names, pressing my hands to my eyes to stop the flow of unending tears. It didn't work however.

Naruto stopped struggling and I could feel everybody's piercing gaze upon me. Kakashi reluctantly let Naruto go and the two boys shuffled over to my bedside quietly. I refrained from looking at the both of them and grasped one of Naruto's large, calloused hands; knowing that Sasuke would have grabbed his own hand back as soon as I touched it.

"Sasuke…Naruto…" I repeated their names like a prayer, over and over again.

Their names spilled out of my mouth brokenly as I gripped Naruto's shirt with a balled fist. I rested my forehead against his strong stomach, trying to hide my face from the both of them. Naruto sat down on the bed beside me and hugged me whereas Sasuke hung about behind him, looking useless and uncomfortable.

When I finally gathered up the courage to look up at them, my eyes fell upon Sasuke first. For the briefest of moments, an image of his bloodied, distraught face appeared in my mind's eye.

And then the screaming…it started again…

"_**Sakura! **_**Help Sasuke! You have to help him! You **_**have **_**to help him!"**

I began to tremble uncontrollably, my unstable mind in a panicked frenzy. Just looking at Sasuke-kun made me want to cry, scream, hit something, just…anything!

I buried my head into Naruto's jacket and screamed a short, mangled scream since I couldn't do anything else. My body wouldn't listen to my crazed mind and I was barely aware of Kakashi stepping forwards to pull Sasuke and Naruto away from me. I hung on to Naruto with a death grip that made my knuckles turn white and eventually, Kakashi gave up on trying to get Naruto away from me.

I screamed again, louder this time, and Naruto held me tightly to him. I was barely aware of his warm embrace as my mind was somewhere else and had I been sane, I would have realized that he was crying too.

"I…it doesn't…stop…" I choked out, leaning burying my face into Naruto's broad shoulder.

"**I just can't save everyone…"**

"Sakura-chan…Sakura-chan…you'll be okay…"

"**NO! Sakura…"**

"Sakura, calm down," Sasuke snapped at me in vain.

"**What do you mean you can't do anything?!" **

"Sakura-chan…come on…"

"**Give him mine then!" **

I screamed again, a hoarse and anguished sound and I could feel Naruto trembling as he held me. My vision was blurry from tears and I couldn't see clearly; I could make out the dark and greyish haze of Kakashi and Sasuke's bodies.

"I can't…I can't do anything…stop…" I choked out, trying to get the memories out of my head.

"**He's like you."**

"Naruto, get back here," Kakashi ordered him calmly but Naruto refused; if anything he held onto me all the more tightly.

"**What kind of sick excuse for a medic-nin are you?!"**

"No! Don't leave…don't leave again…" I cried loudly and the room fell silent. Naruto began to stroke my dull pink hair reassuringly and although my long nails were digging into his flesh and drawing blood; he ignored the pain.

"I won't," Naruto whispered into my ear and I flung my slender muscled arms around his neck, crying into the juncture of where his shoulder and neck met.

I felt someone touch my head with a touch so feather-light that I nearly missed it.

A voice I knew wasn't Naruto's murmured to me quietly.

"I'm not going anywhere."

_**Nara Shikamaru**_

Women were certainly quite troublesome.

Sakura had all of us at wit's precarious end. It didn't help that I had a room near Ino's _and _the hospital ward. Whenever Sakura would start screaming, Ino would run crying into my room and I would have to go comfort her like a good team mate would do.

It was too much to hope for that _maybe _we were more than team mates or even friends; Ino had a different boyfriend for every day of the year. I was surprised that she didn't go crying to her Takahiro or her Shinta or whatever her new boyfriend was called. I supposed I _did _take some little satisfaction in being the one she would run to first.

I…I wasn't in love. It wasn't _that _serious. Just a…a mild infatuation that had been going on for about five years since I turned sixteen…

Urgh.

It was pretty serious.

I didn't even know **why **I liked her! She was too troublesome, too high maintenance, very conceited, hardly ever paid attention to mission orders, she was horribly reckless, charming, loud, flirty, caring and she had that quality that made you feel like you absolutely _had _to protect her-

_Argh, _I was doing it again! This really was quite troublesome.

Honestly! Who used a codename like _Tinkerbell?_

Hinata's Snow White I could understand; it wasn't self appointed. The only reason why she had accepted it was because Naruto had boisterously agreed and had slung a muscled arm around her petite shoulders. Of course, she had blushed bright red and Naruto had absolutely no idea what he did to her.

In a way, I supposed Hinata and I were similar. The object of our unreasonable affection was totally oblivious to it.

Ino stirred slightly and I removed my lean arms from around her tiny waist. I rested my calloused palms on the pale tatami mats behind me, leaning backwards to put most of my weight on my able hands and wrists. I sighed but a smile ghosted over my face as I looked down at Ino.

Sakura had started screaming a couple of hours ago again; only this time it wasn't all mangled screaming but what she had screamed proved much more troublesome. She had screamed out two names, Sasuke's and Naruto's, and Ino had quietly rolled the door open. I had been busy fixing up a long overdue mission report, (I was a _bit _of a procrastinator; work was far too troublesome) and I was more than grateful for the interruption.

After all, who could work with Sakura's screams?

Ino's crystalline blue eyes had been red rimmed and she hesitated for a few moments, simply staring at me. I found that a bit odd and out of character for her and had put down my pen to look at her.

I spread my arms into a wide arc, murmuring a quiet "How troublesome" that I didn't really mean. She had sprinted across the room and collapsed into my arms, crying and gripping at me. She tired herself out bawling and had fallen asleep…again.

"Shikamaru?" She asked me blearily.

Then her perfectly shaped blonde eyebrows narrowed at me, "Why the hell are you smiling?! I've just been crying my eyes out and you're laughing at me?"

I shrugged, but the small, thoughtful smile plastered on my features didn't fade from my face. I tuned out of her senseless babbling and suddenly the strangest idea presented itself.

_Go on! Kiss her! Are you really going to get a better chance than __**this **__one? Take it! It'll shut her up as well!_

And then, I found myself leaning forwards absent-mindedly and brushed her cheek in a brief kiss. Her chatter ceased for once and much to my amusement, as I drew away her face was flushed pink in embarrassment. For a couple of moments; a tense silence reigned.

"You've been acting really weird lately, Shikamaru," Ino eyed me suspiciously.

I ignored her words, rose to my feet and walked over to the rolling rice paper door. I opened it, pausing in the open doorway, and looked back at her.

I went back to being my usual self and drawled lazily, "Whatever, Ino. The meeting's about to start so hurry up."

_**Hatake Kakashi**_

"Kakashi, what's this meeting about anyways?" Naruto whined loudly as the both of us entered the small ANBU meeting room.

We were still a considerable way away from Konoha; this was one of the Hidden ANBU bases in the middle of the Forest of the Fire Country. It was probably the smallest and most remote base and I guessed that was why I always opted to come here rather than any other base. It was perhaps not the classiest but not the dirtiest either; I didn't need much anyways.

It looked like something out of a Robin Hood movie; what with absolutely nothing on the ground and everything was hidden in the leafy treetops. It was a place that breathed secrecy but exhaled power with only the strongest ninja inhabiting it. The fresh scent of pine masked the smell of blood and sweat; but nothing could muffle the sounds of Sakura's screams.

"Hm…well, it's probably about Itachi and Kisame…" I answered him lazily.

Meetings were boring, took a long time and you found you always _had _to use the bathroom at one point. But, of course, you couldn't go because that would be plain rude. Then, people would find you gay or just plain horny if tried to cross your legs, bounced up and down absentmindedly on your chair and tried to hold it in. Then, people would look at you funnily and then you'd poof off to the bathroom as soon as possible.

Meetings were stupid.

"Hey, Kakashi, Hinata brought some apple juice, do you-" Naruto began to offer me and my entire body froze at the mention of apple juice. I suddenly turned sharply and began to walk briskly back to my quarters, feeling my bladder scream to be emptied.

Did I mention that somebody _always _said the wrong thing at meetings?

When I had finished my…'business', I walked leisurely back to the meeting area. I _could _have 'poofed over there', as Sakura would put it, but I didn't feel the need to hurry. It was nice to stall for as long as possible and arrive late, just so you could see the infuriated looks on everyone's faces. I didn't really like being late in the beginning…I supposed it was only after Obito's death I had changed. I had tried so hard to take after his personality and become who he was, but I was still a long way from Obito's sarcastic, lively attitude.

I paused outside the meeting room door, listening to what Shikamaru was saying. I would enter when I felt like it and at the right time.

"Hokage-sama needs us back at Konoha, but she wants four of us to stay here and supervise the missing-nins and criminals Uchiha Itachi and Hoshikagi Kisame. It's troublesome but I have to stay here all the time so I only need three more people. Two will share a room with each of the two criminals and one will just…do something here in case things get out of hand. Sasuke and Naruto are banned from sharing a room with Uchiha Itachi for his own safety…so…do we have any volunteers?" Shikamaru informed everyone.

His lazy voice held the slightest hint of a somewhat commanding tone and everyone listened to him. He was a true leader as much as he hated to admit it and one of the best squad leaders out there. I had half expected him to turn down the offer as a squad captain but he had taken it, despite his lazy nature.

"For his own safety?! What about the safety of the people sharing a room with that ass-" Naruto shouted angrily at Shikamaru.

I decided it was time for me to graciously intervene and use one of my 'flashy appearance jutsus' Naruto had grown so fond of. I wasn't going to pass up the chance to appear fashionably late.

"Kakashi-kun, you're late," Shikamaru berated me, not for the sake of telling me off but just because he had to for the sake of his reputation as a squad captain.

He turned back to the rest of the room and I silently took my place beside Sasuke, slipping into one of the many flimsy white plastic chairs. He repeated his previous question, "Is anyone going to room with Kisame or Itachi?"

I could have laughed. Did he really think _anyone _in their right mind would willingly volunteer to room with those two?

"You know…if nobody volunteers, I'll have to force someone to do it. We'll all have to switch around every four months, so until Tsunade-sama gives us orders to bring these two into Konoha they have to stay here," Shikamaru pointed out and a nervous air filled the room.

Silence reigned and the idea to 'room' with Itachi began to appeal the slightest bit to me. I had only met him once a few years ago when we had been on the same ANBU squad. He had been a pleasant enough 13 year old, if not a little intimidating, and I wondered how that same boy could have completely massacred a whole family.

Just as I began to raise my hand to volunteer, the wooden door I had almost come through creaked loudly as it opened. Every head in the room turned to look at who it was and I let my hand drop lifelessly to my side.

A very fatigued and tired looking Sakura was leaned against the entrance of the wooden doorframe. Naruto's mouth opened to speak but when Sasuke stood up and walked purposefully over to her, he shut his mouth. I found it a bit funny that Sasuke, _Sasuke _of all people was the one to walk over to Sakura and give her support…

I turned around in my chair to face Shikamaru, careful not to let the chair squeak under my heavy weight. I wasn't too surprised at her appearance; Sakura wouldn't miss an ANBU meeting for the world. I **was **surprised however, that she hadn't come any earlier.

"I-I'll room with Itachi," She volunteered shakily.

Naruto shot up from his seat and Sasuke's mismatched eyes narrowed at her. Ino and Hinata exchanged worried looks while Shikamaru sighed and ran a hand through his dark locks.

"Sakura-chan, are you **crazy?! **He almost killed you! He'll kill you again if you room with him!" Naruto yelled heatedly and Sakura glared at him as best she could through heavy lidded eyes.

"Sakura, you've just been sick. Just go back to sleep, you have no idea what you're saying," Sasuke ordered her coolly and she directed her glare at him this time.

"Naruto...Sasuke…I know what I'm doing," Sakura replied quietly, her dull green eyes bored into the two of them.

I was shocked by the emptiness of her eyes; I hadn't realized it when I had seen her earlier. From the long silence, I supposed we all were…where had her rebellious streak gone?

"Shikamaru, he will kill Sakura the first chance he gets," Sasuke pressed Shikamaru further. Sakura glared even more so threateningly at him and pushed herself off the doorframe and walked shakily over to my side, sinking into the empty black folding chair that had once been Sasuke's.

"Sasuke, he'll kill all of us the first chance he gets," She reasoned with him.

Ino chose to spoke up at this point, "Sakura, come on, you can't do anything in the state you're in! You look awful!"

"I'll heal," She replied.

Sasuke looked sceptically at her, "When you have next to no chakra?"

Sakura pulled a small plastic container that held many small, circular black pills from her medic pouch and showed them to everyone, "I have soldier pills with me. I stand a better chance of restraining him if I'm a medic as well."

"Hinata is a medic as well," Ino pointed out angrily.

"Shut up!" Shikamaru raised his voice and just like that, everyone shut up.

Every head in the room turned to look at the usually calm and quiet man. Sakura and Naruto's face held the slightest traces of guilt and Ino looked shocked. Sasuke looked impassive as usual, as was to be expected. Even I for one was surprised at Shikamaru's outburst but I certainly didn't blame him for it.

My former team had to be one of the noisiest squads, what with hot headed Sakura, hyper Naruto and provocative Sasuke.

"Sakura-san, are you absolutely sure you want to do this? I can't just suddenly switch you with someone if it gets too troublesome…" Shikamaru asked her seriously and she nodded.

I jabbed Naruto in with side with a sharp elbow to prevent him from saying anything further and he sat down reluctantly; shooting Sakura a mix of dirty and concerned looks.

"Well…then Sakura-san will room with Itachi until the end of winter. Who volunteers to take after Kisame? Sasuke is the only one who can't room with Kisame, Naruto can," Shikamaru consented to Sakura's demands and moved on to the next topic before anyone could object to his decision.

"Why can Naruto room with him then?" Ino complained loudly and the lazy squad leader sighed at her question.

"Naruto, why would you kill Itachi?" Shikamaru questioned Naruto.

Naruto looked startled and then he answered with narrowed eyes, "I would kill him because of what he did to Sasuke teme and me."

"And, would you kill Kisame for simply knowing Itachi?" Shikamaru pressed him further.

Naruto hesitated before he shook his head slowly. Shikamaru shot Ino an 'I-told-you-so' sort of look and she harrumphed, sinking deeper into her white plastic chair.

"Do we have any volun-" Shikamaru began.

"I volunteer!" Naruto yelled and Shikamaru blinked once, twice before nodding at Naruto.

Shikamaru continued, "Then who else will-"

More than one person was surprised to see Sasuke's hand straight up in the air, but it came as no small surprise to me. The three of them still enjoyed sticking together, even though Team 7 was a distant memory.

"Alright then. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and I will stay here. Hinata and Ino, you can stay here for a month and no longer because Tsunade-sama's going to piss her pants otherwise," Shikamaru announced.

Chairs screeched on the dusty wooden floor as people stood up and Shikamaru added, "Sakura, Naruto. You'll need to move Uchiha-san and Hoshikagi-san to your rooms. If you need help, find someone to help you. Hoshikagi-san weighs a ton but Uchiha-san is really light."

I considered going off to help Sakura carry Itachi but, if he was as light as Shikamaru made him out to be Sakura wouldn't need help if she had that monstrous strength she had gained through Tsunade-sama's training.

_**Haruno Sakura**_

I ignored Naruto as I passed him by and didn't say a word to Kakashi or Sasuke either. The three of them were really beginning to get on my nerves and I _still _hadn't forgiven Kakashi for that incident in the forest now that my memory was coming back to me.

How **could **he say that Itachi could go ahead and do whatever he wanted with me?!

I sighed and hitched the drugged Itachi higher up my back as he began sliding down again. I wrinkled my nose as a few fine strands of his onyx black hair irritated my nose and eyes. With a great deal of effort, I managed to stifle my sneeze. He still had his black, red and white cloud patterned cloak on and I realized that it was much too long for him and it was about the heaviest thing he wore. Truth be told, I found the cloak all together way too silly for elite ninja like Itachi and the rest of the Akatsuki.

What happened if the cloak snagged on a tree branch as they ran away? Or, what happened if a door shut on his cloak and he couldn't get free?

It was a very impractical item but then again, they did need to find a way to recognize each other. I supposed it was better than having a team mate suddenly kill you out of nowhere.

"Geez, the girls back in Konoha would kill to be as light as you," I thought aloud and smiled as I remembered Naruto and Sasuke dragging a drugged Kisame off to Naruto's room.

Those two…

"**You call yourself a medic?!"**

I halted for a brief moment before continuing on, berating myself for letting that get to me. It was a hard thing to get over after all…every time I saw Sasuke's single blue eye.

I sighed in relief when the flimsy rice paper shojo screen double doors of my living quarters came into view. I lowered Itachi to the ground carefully and let his back rest against the wooden walls beside the thin opaque doors. It wasn't that he was heavy…he was just awkward to carry; like carrying a huge, empty cardboard box. He _was _taller than me.

I rolled the shojo screen open and sneezed as the dormant dust particles sleeping in the cracks in the wood sneaked up my nose. I paused to stare into the dusty, derelict room and felt I didn't deserve it…

I shook my head of pink locks quickly and grabbed Itachi by his slim, pale wrists; choosing to drag him across the floor now that we were just outside my room. As he slid across the floor with no further drag, I was relieved that he had that silly cloak on to help with moving him.

The rolling shojo screen had tracks in the floor on a piece of elevated wood. I winced as Itachi's head hit the wood with a loud bang and I knew he was definitely going to feel _that _in the morning. I froze as I heard the unmistakable sound of fabric tearing and cursed loudly. I stopped, dropped Itachi to the floor and went to investigate the cause of the sound. I was overcome with a sinking feeling when I realized that his black cloak had snagged on the wooden tracks and had torn.

A cold shiver raced down my spine as I was paralyzed to the spot. Would he kill me? Of course he would! If he didn't kill me for the egg sized lump on his head, or being dragged around like a piece of luggage he would kill me for ripping his cloak! I was so screwed! What was I going to-

Hey, wait, _I _was the one in control now wasn't I? He couldn't do a thing to me while he was drugged...right?

I pulled him over to a spaced out area of the room and laid him down, gently this time. Looking around my room, I realized it hadn't changed much from the last time I had come here. I always took this room when I came here and since I was the head medic for the time being, it was a big room.

I sneezed violently; the room really needed a good cleaning. It was dark and I cursed inwardly for not bringing some sort of battery powered lamp, there was no electricity to speak of here. I would have to make do with a candle, I supposed. The walls were made in the traditional Japanese style; they looked like solid, wooden shojo screens. There was a wooden ledge on the far left side of the room beneath the window. The window had a rolling rice paper screen in front of it which you could open or close whenever you wanted.

I walked over to the shojo screen like window and rolled it open; feeling calmer as the sunlight caressed my face with warmth. I was a long way away from smiling though, my ordeal had left me far too exhausted to do anything as demanding as that. The light lit up the room and turned around to look at what had become of the ANBU quarters.

The pale tatami mats were dusty but in perfect condition, as I had hoped, but humidity had stained some of the rice paper a yellowish colour. I walked over to the white built in closet and I swore when I realized that the door was jammed shut. The closet didn't have one of those nice handles that stuck out; it had a silly one that looked like a small rectangular indent in the door. I groaned when I remembered that the futons were inside the closet and I had nothing to sleep on until I found someone to help me with the door. A rosewood writing desk had been pushed into one of the corners. I knew that it would come in handy, since I would obviously have to write a long report now that Itachi was under my care.

There was a small, low dining table in the exact centre of the room. Four small white cushions for kneeling on had been pushed underneath the table. With a sinking feeling, I realized that I would be using it a lot more now that I was rooming with Itachi. I wouldn't be able to go eat with Hinata and occasionally Naruto like I usually did.

The room was very empty and I couldn't decide if it was meant to be in the traditional sort of empty style or if Tsunade-sama was just too stingy with money.

I sighed and turned around, only to be frightened out of my wits when I saw Kakashi standing right behind me. He raised a silvery eyebrow at me, "You didn't sense me at all, did you?"

I asked him tiredly, "How long have you been there?"

"Ever since you opened your window," He replied coolly and I was dismayed at the revelation.

I had only been out for a few days and I couldn't sense chakra at all? I really needed to start training again.

Kakashi held out a small silver necklace to me and the pendant caught the dying sunlight. I squinted and as my eyes focussed, I realized that it was a wire bent into shape to look like the Konoha leaf. He waited for me to take it from him, although I had no intention of doing so.

"I don't need jewellery and I'm not a patriot, Kakashi," I told him flatly and the corner of his mouth quirked upwards slightly in a half-hearted smirk underneath his navy mask.

"You don't know what this is, do you?" Kakashi asked me and I knew he was just asking me that to spite me.

"It's a restrictor. Itachi-san can't go further than a meter away from you, his chakra is blocked and his strength is depleted when he puts it on. He won't be able to take it off unless you take it off of him," He explained.

I felt offended that he had to explain it to me but I supposed he had to, since I really and truly didn't know. I was relieved that such an item existed but was a bit sceptical of it. Would a necklace _really _deplete his strength and block his chakra? Wouldn't something that powerful be…bigger?

I reluctantly took it from him, realizing that this would be my only option for now. I avoided his searching dark eye, I had begun to accept that what he said was right. I was useless…nobody really needed me…a failure like me.

He turned to leave and rolled the shojo screen open with an able hand. I turned my back away from him and didn't so much as say goodbye as his shoes thumped on the floor quietly with every step he took.

"Sakura, I didn't mean what I said in the forest," Kakashi said quietly before shutting the shojo screen behind him.

His voice was muffled by the thin rice paper but I could hear him well enough as he added, "My team mates don't die while I'm alive anymore."

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

"How the hell do I use this piece of crap?" I demanded in a frustrated tone, glaring at the silver necklace.

It was mocking me as it spun…that cheeky little glint…that swirliness…

I resisted the urge to throw the annoying necklace out of the window but it was the only thing that could restrain that huge chunk of fishy looking ninja. Sasuke smirked at my obvious frustration and I threw the clay cup I had been drinking from at him, yelling something even I didn't understand as I did so. He dodged it the cup easily and it shattered against the wall.

"You really are an idiot. You just transfer some of your own chakra and some of his into the pendant," Sasuke explained, making it seem as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

I stared at him blankly and asked cluelessly, "…I do…**what?**"

Sasuke walked away, but not before shooting the drugged fish man a chilling glare. I realized and accepted that Sasuke would never change; he would continue hating Itachi and anyone who was in alliance with him. He reached the door and stopped.

"Ask Sakura, she's most likely done it already," Sasuke advised me coldly and he turned to leave.

The mention of Sakura's name brought memories of her hellish battle against the Mangekyou Sharingan and the torture she had been put through to mind. But then…I began to wonder…

The sound of the rolling rice paper door brought me to my senses and I called his name, "Sasuke?"

He stopped and made no further move to walk out the door. He said nothing but I knew that he was listening to me.

"Do you…hate Sakura-chan? For what happened last year?" I asked him quietly in a serious tone. Sasuke was quiet for a while, his body rigid and his mismatched eyes quiet.

And finally he answered, "…a little bit."

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

When I awoke, I was aware that I was not in my own quarters or even the wilderness where Kisame and I camped to prevent drawing attention to ourselves. Two voices, one boisterous and masculine, the other tired and female could be heard. Both voices were distinctly familiar but funnily enough everything about me felt…fuzzy.

I had already degraded myself for using such a childish word but I couldn't think of anything else to describe the sensation. My hearing was muted, like someone was holding their hands over my ears and thinking properly was way beyond my reach. My tongue was thick in my mouth and I knew that if I tried to speak, my speech would be slurred and impossible to understand.

Without a doubt, I knew I had been drugged. I didn't know who and why but I did know that I had to be on my guard, even if fighting in my current condition wouldn't be too good for my reputation.

"So…I did it right then, Sakura-chan?" A man asked in something akin to disbelief.

"Yes, Naruto. You'd better get back to your own room, Hoshikagi-san will wake up soon," The woman, Sakura, told the man.

"But Sakura-chan, if Hoshikagi-san wakes up then Itachi will too! You'll need someone here to restrain-" The man began to complain.

"Naruto, please," The woman's voice took on an almost pleading note.

The sound of a rolling door and a few reluctant footfalls told me that Naruto had left. I chose to stay as quiet as possible and recollect myself before I attempted to face my captor.

Sakura…? A _woman _of all people was keeping me here?

The name sounded familiar but I supposed it was a common name. I had met more than enough Sakura's on my way around, most of whom had ended up dying at my hands. The name Naruto sounded even _more _so familiar but…I really couldn't remember where. My memory had gone.

Things began to come back to me at a painfully slow pace, drip by drip and then I remembered exactly why I was here. And then I became furious.

I had been defeated by the Konoha ANBU, a disgrace. From what I heard of this 'Sakura's' conversation, Kisame had also been captured. The both of us would undoubtedly be the laughing stock of the Akatsuki if word of this ever got out.

A single drugged dart.

That was all it took for me to fall unconscious. I had been preoccupied fighting somebody altogether far too familiar, the blonde haired Kyuubi, and I hadn't heard the sound of the dart as it flew towards me. I was ashamed of myself, but I knew that Konoha would pay. I would kill each and every member of this ANBU squad as payment; especially the one who had thrown the dart at me.

A memory of a pink haired woman flashed in my mind's eye and I recalled that I had been fighting her. She had smiled at me and I had grown incredibly angry at that one action. She was going to die and she should have been terrified, she should have screamed! But she had smiled…

So instead of the painless death I _was _going to give her, I chose to put her through something that would scare her, something that would break her. She would live the rest of her days broken or insane, until she died or committed suicide. Most of my victims went for the latter.

I opened my eyes gradually and closed them again quickly on instinct as bright sunlight poured into my sore eyes. I tried again, a second time and although my eyes watered uncontrollably, I finally had my eyes well and truly open.

The first thing I realized was that my cloak and my weapons were gone. Then, my head began to throb and I didn't realize much else until later on.

I began to raise myself into a sitting position and when something ice cold touched my chest I looked down at my well muscled upper torso. I was disgusted to see a Konoha pendant strung on a silver chain around my neck and began to examine the pendant more closely. I was something akin to relieved when I saw my usual black chain necklace hanging where it usually hung.

I noticed that the pendant glowed two eerie different colours; a soothing green and a darker, sinister blue, and the two colours blended together in the middle to make a balanced, strong cyan colour. I pulled on the pendant, expecting it to break off with one tug but when the chain began to dig into my skin and draw blood, I let go, realizing it was pointless to pursue that method any further. I then tried to pull the necklace over my head but my calloused hands began to burn uncontrollably and I let go; it was obvious that it wouldn't come off that way either.

"You won't be able to remove that. I'm the only one who can," Sakura's voice rang out from somewhere on the other side of the room.

I stood up gradually, on my guard, ignoring my failing knees as they trembled precariously. I turned to face this 'Sakura' to get a better look at my captor.

She sat on a dusty wooden ledge in front of an open window. The ethereal light shone around her form, since it obviously couldn't go through her, and for a single moment, I thought that the light was coming _from _her. I realized the stupidity of that thought and banished it in an instant; my mind still hadn't completely come back to me yet.

She was dressed in form fitting black clothes, but what drew my attention was the thick, black, familiar cloak laid over her legs. My dark red eyes narrowed at the sight of her and my fatigue and weakness from before was forgotten just like that. I couldn't quite use my speed to my advantage at the moment but I was quick enough to look like a black blur. Sakura watched me through penetrating emerald green eyes and when my hand closed around her throat tightly to choke her, she didn't move at all.

My legs suddenly gave way and I fell to the floor in front of her, my hand loosening its grasp around her neck to grab her covered legs to support my fall. I released my hold on her legs as if she had burnt me; I was disgusted I had even touched someone like her.

I planned out what seemed to be a thousand deaths all in quick succession. She had humiliated me in one of the worst ways possible and it was a low blow to my pride. She had made me seem like a total fool before her…an **inferior**.

She and her pathetic smile…I wanted to rip her face off or torture her until she screamed and couldn't smile anymore. Konoha ANBU were…

Konoha.

I realized with a sinking feeling that I had most likely missed the deadline of three days that I had strived so hard to make. Because of this silly obstacle I had missed it and the wine coloured velvet pouch I had been carrying around with me was gone. I wondered who had it now and whether or not the person with the pouch had chosen to exploit me and destroy the reputation I had worked so hard to uphold. Then again, my reputation was probably already tarnished for life.

Deidara was probably killing himself laughing.

"You've been drugged, Uchiha-kun. You've been sleeping for the past week under the influence of a drug that Hokage-sama made. The necklace around your neck will sooner or later reveal its properties," She explained enigmatically.

The jelly like feeling in my legs began to subside slowly and I forced myself to my feet. I grabbed her neck again and she attempted to look calm and relaxed; an illusion that would have fooled most other people. Unfortunately for her, I was not most other people. I could see her anxiety in the way her shoulders tensed and the way she tried to chew the inside of her cheek discreetly. I could hear her nervousness in the way her breathing picked up and the quick gasp she made when my fingers tightened around her neck.

This kunoichi was going to pay dearly for what she had done to me. Nobody made a fool out of me twice and lived to do it again a third time. I could still defeat her in my drugged state; she was weak and I could tell she was exhausted.

She simply looked up at me through her glassy green eyes, a small, knowing smile on her face. Our eyes met, a nasty clash of red and green, and neither of us said anything. I was angry at the audacity of her stare and that annoying smile, wasn't it obvious that _I _was the one in power here?

I squeezed her neck as hard I could without breaking it and raised her so that she was dangling above the ground, I wanted her to suffer. I wanted to wipe that smile off her face; it annoyed me more than anyone could ever know. The feeling of triumph surged through me like a beam of light when her smile faltered and her expression became a pained one.

The black, red and white Akatsuki lay forgotten on the floor; it had dropped when I had lifted her off the ground.

Her smile returned when a pair of invisible hands grabbed me by the neck and seemed to strangle me as I was doing her. I struggled not to let my own suffering show and white spots began to dance before my eyes as a light headed feeling washed over me. My vision began to blur but the girl's smile was ever present in my mind and before me. I knew that she was the one doing it to me but I refused to let go. It was only when the pain in my chest grew intense and precariously near deadly, I released the petite girl from my grasp.

She collapsed to the ground with a muffled thump and gasped loudly as she coughed to try and get her breathing out of control. A curtain of silly pink locks fell over her face and I quietly tried to breathe in and out calmly. Unfortunately, I let my condition slip when a careless, noisy gasp escape from my masculine lips. The kunoichi laughed breezily at me and the urge to kill her grew stronger and stronger with each passing second.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth Uchiha-kun. The necklace is more dangerous than it looks," She taunted me.

"Remove it," I ordered her coolly.

She slowly got to her feet and I watched her through piercing red eyes. She brushed herself off and looked up at me and challenged me, "Why?"

For a moment I was taken aback. No one had ever dared question me before or challenge my authority; it wasn't something that happened very often. The only people ever to have done so hadn't lived to tell the tale.

It was a different feeling, to be defied, and it wasn't one I wanted to get used to.

"Do not question my authority. Take it off," I repeated warningly.

She laughed at me, a strong, alto laugh that made my blood boil. Her emerald eyes twinkled oddly and she stopped in front of me. She rested her petite hands on her bony waist and looked at me sceptically.

"Last time I checked Uchiha-kun, all your authority flew out the window the moment you were captured. I don't think you've realized that you're the prisoner here," The kunoichi informed me in a light tone.

Prisoner? Me? A prisoner? Ha, that was impossible. This was merely an obstacle I had yet to overcome.

She walked towards me briskly and with purpose and stopped a few centimetres away from me. The necklace had obviously given her confidence but the necklace obviously had one massive loophole.

If I could only _feel _what the other person was feeling, that didn't mean that I would actually undergo the same suffering. If I killed her, it would probably hurt like hell's wrath but I wouldn't actually _die_. However, if she had just failed to tell me that I actually did die if she died or if I did bleed when she bled, then I would be in a lot of trouble if I did kill her as I was itching to right now.

I stared at her stoically and all of a sudden, my arm lashed out to grab hers in a death grip. My long nails dug into her skin and she let out a small yelp of surprise. I could feel her trying to pull away from me but I wasn't about to let that happen; I had to test my theory first.

She stopped struggling and a sharp pain raced up my muscled arm. We both stared at each other; my blood red eyes were empty as usual while her jade ones were filled with defiance. It was only a few moments later I released her arm and I examined the skin on my right arm. I sighed inwardly when I saw five nail marks indented deep into my skin and the blood running down my arm and wiped it off quickly with my free, calloused hand.

Through the corner of my eye, I looked at the pink haired kunoichi and saw her putting pressure on her new wounds to stem the crimson blood flow. I ignored the blood running down my own arm; I never was too concerned with my own health, I knew I would heal eventually. She then touched each of her cuts with a fingertip and immediately green healing chakra flowed from her hand to her open wounds. They closed in a matter of seconds and I wasn't too impressed; even a reasonably good medic would have been able to heal that instantly.

She held out a petite hand to me and I simply looked at her outstretched hand blankly. She sighed impatiently and grabbed my arm all of a sudden in a firm grip. Immediately, I drew back and snatched my arm out of her grasp, my eyes narrowing at her.

She threw her hands up in the air and grumbled loudly, "Fine, if you don't want my help then go bleed yourself to death. It would do the world a favour if you ask me."

"I don't need anybody's help," I hissed at her and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Right, I'm _sure_," She retorted sarcastically.

She walked over to the white built in cabinet and slid the dirty white door open. She stood on tiptoe and tried to get something from one of the higher shelves; she jumped pathetically once, twice in an attempt to reach it but failed. I wondered how such a small woman like her could be a ninja, and a successful one at that.

"Damn it, where's Naruto when you need him?!" She complained and I saw her glance at me quickly before looking back up at the cabinet.

She was obviously hoping that I would help her get whatever it was she wanted to get but honestly, did she really think that I would help her? I walked to her side and looked at the cabinet. I could see what she was trying to get, two white folded futons on the highest shelf, and I hadn't the least intention of helping her. I simply stood there to spite her since I couldn't hurt her without hurting myself in the process.

She glared at me and tapped her foot impatiently before snapping at me, "Well? Aren't you going to help me get them?"

I returned her heated glare with a cool, impassive look and replied bluntly, "No."

"Fine then! You men are all so insufferable!" She grumbled and began to walk towards the rice paper door.

She took about ten steps and I realized that she was going to leave me in the room alone. I marvelled at the idiocy of this girl; who left an unguarded hostage alone?

When she opened the door, much to my dismay, I began to become drawn to her by some invisible magnet. I wasn't taking any steps and I could hear my shoes dragging on the floor as I tried to resist it but to no avail. I could see the smug smirk on the kunoichi's face and it was all I could do to control myself and not kill her.

"You know, we wouldn't have to go out if you would just get the futons," She told me in an exasperated tone.

I remained silent, I still had my pride no matter how bruised it was. I wasn't about to help my enemy; even if it was only with getting futons. It was her fault she was short anyways.

She took a step outside of the room and onto the shaky wooden bridge. I reluctantly followed her, simmering angrily inside at having been degraded to following her around like a pathetic dog, and began to walk rather than being dragged along. It would have looked rather silly if I was dragged the whole way wherever we were going.

She shut the door behind her as quietly she could and began to walk in another direction quickly. I followed her and noticed her movements were sluggish and half-hearted, as if it were too much for her to even walk. I congratulated myself inwardly, remembering that I had put her under the Mangekyou Sharingan and she was obviously feeling its after affects now.

We passed a dark haired man on the bridge and when I became the victim of his blatant hate filled glare, I realized who he was. It was my younger brother, Sasuke. For a moment, a strange feeling of peace overcame me as I stared at him. He had grown so big now; it seemed only yesterday he was up to my waist…

When Sasuke shot me a cold glare, I ignored him completely and pretended as though I hadn't seen him. This made him extremely angry.

Sakura wasn't aware of our 'brotherly' moment and kept on walking with her head bowed. A curtain of cherry pink locks covered her face and eyes from view and she kept walking forwards. I walked (_not_ followed) towards the kunoichi, feeling my brother's blatant glare on the back of my neck.

I wasn't too surprised when he tried his best to tackle me to the ground from behind but I certainly wasn't strong enough to resist the hit. The drug had had many negative effects on me and sapping my strength was certainly one of them.

My chin hit the bridge with a loud bang and I could taste the blood in my mouth. I marvelled at my own stupidity, I had managed to bite my own tongue in the process. I jabbed Sasuke in the stomach with a sharp elbow and rolled away to the side, stopping when I was dangerously close to the edge. I got to my feet shakily and walked over to Sasuke, placed a foot on his chest and began to press down as hard as I could. Sasuke's eyes were squeezed shut in pain but they gradually opened. What I saw there truly shocked me, this time I wasn't afraid to admit it.

A single blue eye and a dark red sharingan eye stared back at me.

"Uchiha-kun, stop it!" Sakura yelled at me and she ran towards me, pulling me away and off of Sasuke. My temporary shock left me unguarded and open and she easily yanked me off of Sasuke.

Sasuke choked and spluttered as air rushed back into his lungs and the pink haired girl knelt down at his side. She began to move as if to touch him but hesitated and let her hands drop to her side.

She directed a chilling glare at me but I ignored it, after all I was much better at her when it came to glaring. She asked Sasuke softly, "Are you alright?"

He sat up slowly and tried to hide his obvious discomfort as he dismissed her coldly, "I'm fine, Sakura."

He stood up and brushed past me, I could see that he was horribly embarrassed. He had been shown up by me even though I was clearly only at half my strength and he still hadn't a chance against me. I wondered why the girl didn't just ask him to get the futons and be done with it, but judging from the awkwardness and guilt reflected in her eyes; something had happened between her and him in the past. I really was surprised by Sasuke's new eye and hardly anything ever surprised me now.

"Shikamaru-san!" the girl yelled loudly and I resisted the urge to cover my ears. She was far too loud for my liking.

My attention was directed towards a tall, lean man who was walking our way. There was something about him that screamed lazy, be it the way his feet dragged on the floor when he walked or the dark hooded eyes. He stopped and looked at the girl, directing a small half hearted smile at her.

"Sakura-san," He greeted her.

"Hi Shikamaru-san, sorry to ask but do you mind helping me get the futons from the cabinet in my room? I can't reach them…" She asked him politely.

Shikamaru sighed and ran a hand through his unruly hair. For a moment, I thought he was going to say no but he jammed his hands into his pockets and grumbled, "Women and their problems…"

"You have your problems too!" She snapped at him and Shikamaru shrugged, walking ahead of her and past me. His dark brown, calculating eyes flickered to me for the quickest of moments before he averted them.

"How are you, Sakura-san?" Shikamaru asked the pink haired kunoichi quietly and her angry expression became one filled with thought.

"I'm…fine now," She replied hesitantly.

I guessed the both of them were referring to her incident with the Mangekyou Sharingan and triumph surged through me. It was odd she was still so fiery after having suffered from that but it didn't matter too much to me.

Shikamaru slipped into her room and we walked after him him. I was stony silent as usual; not at all interested in conversing with this Shikamaru and I worked my mind into overdrive trying to find a way out of here. The only idea I could come up with at the moment was to bring the loudmouth with me all the way to Akatsuki and I would only use that as a last resort. I knew I had already shamed myself by allowing these fools to capture me; bringing a girl back to Akatsuki would further damage my reputation.

Shikamaru took the futons easily out of the white cabinet and dumped them on the floor beside him. He turned and walked away from us, waving a careless hand over his shoulder and the girl ignored him, grumbling about how he could have at least helped them set up the futons. She huffed as she picked up one of the bulky futons and laid it out near the window on the mats before picking up the other one and laying it beside the previously placed one.

She sighed and put her hands on her hips, staring at the futons in silence. She made it look as if they were about to rear up and bite her and I tired of looking at her. I brushed past her and picked up my forgotten black Akatsuki cloak before walking briskly over to the window. I rested my back against the sturdy wall and looked out of the glassless window at what seemed to be endless green foliage; covering my legs with my cloak.

I could feel her green eyed gaze burning a hole into my side and I grew annoyed with her staring so I stared chillingly back at her. As she averted her eyes, she guiltily blushed pink enough to match her ridiculous hair and walked over to the writing desk tucked away into a corner. I returned to looking out of the window that didn't offer much of a view and scoffed inwardly at the simplicity of women's minds.

A pale white hand sneaked out of my cloak to tug at the beaded necklace around my neck, once, twice, before falling to my side lifelessly.


	3. The End of Sanity

**Chapter 3: The End of Sanity**

A/N: I am very sorry about the very long wait between the updates. I'm literally home two hours a day excluding the time I spend sleeping and eating so I am sort of busy. When I do get to use the computer I'm either trying to watch the newest episodes of Bleach, Naruto, Marchen Awakens Romance or just trying to reply to emails. I manage to get some writing in but I get about an hour of writing in a week. Ah...the days of freedom seem so far away...(Christmas holidays...)

* * *

_You tend to find allies in the weirdest places._

_**Naruto**_

"I can't believe I'm stuck with you!" I complained loudly.

The pissy shark man, who sat as far as his necklace would allow him, bared his razor sharp teeth and growled at me angrily, "Shut up, you're too loud."

"I don't like you," I told him bluntly and he crossed his arms over his broad chest, glaring at me through beady black eyes.

"You don't think the feeling is mutual?" He snapped at me irritably.

"Shut up! You…you…" I trailed off towards the end, trying to think of an insult that would ultimately crush this stupid…stupid…

"Don't hurt yourself," Kisame interrupted my runaway train of thought.

I stood up suddenly and pointed an accusing finger at him, yelling, "Shut up! You stupid sushi man!"

Kisame stood up as well, his flimsy gills flapping in annoyance as he yelled back at me equally as angrily, "Who are you calling a sushi man, you stupid blondie!"

"What have you got against blondes?!" I screamed back at him irritably.

"Everything! They're annoying, loud, stupid and _just like you_," He retorted, his onyx eyes gleaming.

"Why you…!" I ran towards him and drew my clenched fist back. I swung at him powerfully and he ducked beneath my strong, muscular arm. He grabbed my ankle and lifted it up, using his shoulder to push me over. I fell onto the tatami mat floor and scrambled away from him, getting back to my feet as quickly as possible.

"You're my hostage! You're not supposed to hit me, you dumb shark!" I snapped at him, rubbing my sore back with a large hand. Kisame winced a few moments after I had and began to rub his back as well, glaring at me as if it were my fault the necklace had that nasty side effect.

"I'll do whatever I damn please!" Kisame spat at me and a quiet rap on the wood of the rice paper door distracted the both of us.

We both yelled at the door angrily, "Who the hell is it?!"

"Uhm…i-if it's a bad time, Naruto-kun, I can come back again later…" A quiet, tentative voice from the other side of the door apologized.

I bounded excitedly towards the shojo screen door and wrenched it open before Kisame could smart mouth the timid woman whom I knew had to be Hinata. The dark purple haired woman seemed shocked at my sudden appearance and I leaned against the doorframe, beaming at her.

"Hi, Hinata-chan!" I greeted her energetically and she returned my bright smile shyly.

"G-Good morning, Naruto-kun," She greeted me politely and bowed deeply before me. I noticed the white food container in her womanly hands and my face lit up at the sight of it. A savoury, ramen-y smell wafted from the box and I slung a muscled arm over her shoulder, peering down at it.

"Hey, hey, Hinata-chan, is that ramen?" I asked her excitedly and all of a sudden her pale face went really red.

Oh no! Was she sick? If she wasn't feeling good then I'd have to bring her to Sakura-chan! She looked really hot, like she was having a fever or something.

"Oi, are you okay Hinata? You look really red…" I commented and put a large hand on her forehead and frowned.

"You don't have a fever…I wonder what's wrong. Do you feel okay?" I repeated my previous question with even more concern.

She shook her head vigorously, her long dark hair flying about as she did so and she looked down at her sandaled feet. She managed a quiet, "I-I'm fine, Naruto-kun. You don't need to worry about me…"

"But we're friends! I have to worry about you!" I protested and for a moment she didn't say anything at all. She nodded again and I found her long silence a bit scary.

"Oi, Hinata?" I called her name and tapped on her head with my knuckles.

She looked up at me with wide, opaque eyes and all of a sudden, held out the white box to me. I took it from her and opened it curiously, my cerulean eyes lit up when I realized what it was.

Ramen! Hinata's homemade ramen!

Hinata's cooking was really good! It was almost as good as Ichiraku's but Ichiraku would always be the best. The old man there was really cool too, he gave me an extra bowl of ramen after I bought my first eight and then Ayame-chan, the pretty waitress who worked there, would sneak me a second one when he wasn't looking.

"Wah, it's ramen! Thank you Hinata-chan!" I hugged her suddenly and she let out a small yelp of surprise.

I felt something warm and wet slosh my dark orange shirt and Kisame chipped in unhelpfully, "Nice going, dumbass."

I looked down and despaired when I realized that the watery yellow soup of the ramen had gotten all over Hinata and me. Her black shirt was really wet now and she went bright red again.

"Hinata-chan! I'm so sorry! Wait, wait, I'll get you another shirt, I have some spares," I told her hurriedly.

"Naruto-kun, it's okay I have-" She began but I had dashed off already to grab a shirt from my closet.

I heard a wolf whistle from somewhere behind me and glared at Kisame who had begun to stare unashamedly at Hinata. I shook my head at his antics and grabbed a dark blue shirt (Shikamaru had made me bring dark shirts this time, he said that it was stupid to bring bright colours on a mission) off of its hanger and turned around.

"Hinata-chan, here's a shirt-" I began but stopped mid-sentence when I saw her.

All I could do was gape at her. I was lost for words.

The black shirt she was wearing had been really baggy but since the soup had sloshed all over it, it clung revealingly to her body. I…I didn't even _know _Hinata had boobs…not boobs _that _big!

Hinata-chan…she was…she was a babe!

"Hey, close your mouth, you're drooling blondie," Kisame's gruff voice dragged me forcefully out of my state of shock and I blushed, finally finding myself.

"Uh…H-Hinata here's a sh-shirt…you can give it back to me to- whenever you want," I stuttered embarrassedly and I held the shirt out to her, my hand trembling slightly.

I avoided looking at her and she reached for the dark shirt shyly. When our hands touched unexpectedly, it was like an electric shock, and the both of us jumped before laughing nervously. She took the shirt from me at last and pulled it over her head, covering her wet body.

"I-uh, Thank you Naruto-kun," She thanked me gratefully and I shook my head vigorously, finally finding the courage to look up at her.

"It's okay! Oh…but I'm sorry about the ramen, I'm really, really, really sorry!" I apologized repeatedly.

She laughed, a tinkly, musical sound and smiled at me. It was a simple movement but it brought out the hidden beauty in her pale face, it was a uniqueness I found I…I sort of liked. I felt all the blood in my body rush to my face and I tried my best to force it down.

Unfortunately, I couldn't hit it or anything so it didn't really work…

Why was I acting like this?! I had seen Hinata millions of times before, why now?!

"Bye, Naruto-kun," Hinata bowed to me before rushing out of the door in what seemed to be a very, _very _fast walk.

The rolling doors had already shut when I lifted up my hand to wave back at her. I cocked it slightly and murmured, "Bye…"

"She's a looker," Kisame commented and I nodded dumbly, wondering why I hadn't noticed Hinata had a body like that before. It was only a few moments later his words registered in my mind and I shot up rigid.

"Don't talk about Hinata like that!" I snapped at him and he smirked, a gesture that made his sharp teeth stand out and gleam in the dying sunlight.

"Oh, its Hinata now is it? What happened to 'Hinata-chan'?" Kisame pressed me for answers and I realized my mistake, feeling the blood I had just managed to force away from my face race back up again.

"Shut up, I am your superior anyways!" I screamed at Kisame.

"Since when?!" Kisame yelled back furiously.

_**Sakura**_

"Don't tell me its morning already…" I mumbled into my pillow, burying my face deep into it.

The sun's bright morning rays were really beginning to piss me off; I could feel them on the back of my neck. I decided it was a bad idea to put the futons near the window. I didn't care about what Ino said about that feng shui crap whatever it was; I was definitely moving the futon.

I willed with all of my being that the sun would go away or something, like that children's rhyme whatever it was (or was it the rain that would go away? Either way around, the sun was a pain in the neck in the morning). Unfortunately, simply wishing for the sun to get lost didn't work and I forced myself to open my tired jade green eyes. I groaned and threw off my covers, rolling over to the left. The cool feel of the tatami mats graced my burning back and I sighed in contentment, blankly staring up at the white ceiling. I waited a few moments and let my thoughts drift about lazily in my mind before sitting up.

"I should kill Shikamaru-san or something…" I mused aloud.

I dragged myself over to the chest of drawers, pulling my oversized sleeping shirt on the way there. I shivered as the morning air came into contact with my exposed skin; I didn't wear any shorts to sleep so I was only in my white underwear at the moment. I jumped when something made a loud 'thunk'. The floor shook slightly with the force of the fall and I turned around to look at what had happened. A pale faced and stoic looking Itachi was busy picking himself up from the ground and he shot me a quick glare that would have made Medusa herself freeze over and die.

"Urgh, you're still here aren't you…" I mumbled to myself and Itachi walked towards me. He brushed past me rudely and leaned against the chest of drawers, staring unashamedly at me.

"Hey! What are you doing, I'm changing!" I yelled at him, using my dull shirt to cover myself up since I was currently in a state of half nakedness.

He pointed to the tracing necklace around his neck silently and I snapped at him, "I don't care if you've got that damn thing on, turn around! It's rude to stare at a woman while she's changing!"

"Do not flatter yourself by thinking that one such as I would look at you," He retorted coldly.

His words stung and I swear, his ego was way too big for my liking. Honestly! 'One such as I', who did he think he was? Sure, I was terrified of him in the beginning but he was just plain annoying now! He was a million times worse than Sasuke when it came to the, 'I'm so much better than you so go die' attitude and for a brief moment I wondered if all the other Uchiha clan members had been as stuck up and as proud as these two.

One such as I, oh yeah sure whatever. One such as I; what a pompous ass! And, I was _so _sure that was incorrect grammar!

"Whatever pretty boy, I don't care just close your eyes even if _one such as you_ won't look at me," I grumbled and he complied readily.

His enigmatic red eyes closed and the scars that ran down from the corner of his eyes diagonally downwards seemed to soften with that one motion. I stared at him for a few moments and couldn't help but think that he seemed so…so normal when he did that. He seemed just like any other person with his eyes closed but when they opened…

I sighed and let the ratty shirt I wore drop to the tatami floor, pulling open the top wooden drawer in one quick fluid motion. The clothes inside were a total mess, a jumble of colours and the occasional secret weapon here and there. I groaned and began to search through the clothes for something that I felt like wearing today; even though all of the clothes seemed pretty much the same. I grabbed a roll of white linen bandages from the top of the dresser and began to mechanically wrap my chest with it; it was a daily thing. I pulled out a dark red shirt with white lining and pulled it over my head, tugging on it once, twice to make sure that it didn't slip or anything. It was a stupid thing to trust an S class criminal and I wasn't about to disprove that theory now. I growled, thinking that all my shorts were far too short for my liking although they had seemed decent enough last week. Sharing a room with a man did change your opinion on things…

I yanked on a pair of black shorts that came up to mid-thigh and strapped on a couple of thigh holsters. I paused in the middle of strapping the second one on before yanking them both off and digging through my drawers for all of my weapons; Itachi could still stab me with whatever he could get his hands on and I wouldn't be able to say a damn thing about it. I gathered all of my weapons into a dark green duffel bag which Sasuke had let me borrow last summer for keeping my dirty clothes in. Of course, I would have to find a substitute for those now that I was using this bag for my weapons. I was actually surprised that Sasuke even _had _a bag of a different colour other than blue and when I had told him that he had glared at me. It was in bad condition and I had been even more so surprised at Sasuke, he seemed like a neat freak sort of person. It had a few various coloured patches all over it, along with a white patch that was fashioned into the words 'Sexy Ninja'. I doubted it was even Sasuke's.

"Are you decent?" Itachi asked me impatiently and I pulled the two strings at the top of the duffel bag as hard as I could before knotting it tightly.

"Now I am," I replied and swung the duffel bag carefully onto my shoulder.

Itachi looked at the bag for the briefest of moments before his piercing red eyes flickered back to mine. His calloused hand reached for the colourful beaded necklace around his neck and he tugged on it, once, twice, and then he asked me in a low voice, "Where did you get that bag?"

"I got it from Sasuke. Why?" I answered cautiously. Itachi stared at the bag for a long time before he shook his head quickly, his black locks flying about his head as he walked briskly ahead of me towards the door.

"Hey! You're supposed to be following me!" I yelled after him.

_**Itachi**_

That bag…

Why wasn't it with _her_?

That brainless girl shouldn't have even been _touching _that bag, it should have just been given to _her _like it was supposed to have been!

And…how did Sasuke, _Sasuke_, of all people get his hands on it?

The pink haired girl ran to catch up to me and my dark red eyes flickered sideways to look at her for a moment. I wanted to rip that bag out of her hands and give it to _his_ girlfriend like it was supposed to have been. I was on the verge of yanking the beaded necklace off of my neck with the force I was pulling it with and I restrained from pulling on it any further. I certainly didn't want it breaking in two.

"Good morning, Sakura," A quiet, timid voice from somewhere behind me greeted the idiot girl and I felt the familiar annoying tug of the necklace as I was pulled back to the aforementioned idiot.

"Oh! Good morning Hinata! Isn't that…Isn't that _Naruto's _shirt?" The insufferable pink haired kunoichi's face was a picture of surprise as she spoke with a dark haired girl, presumably Hinata.

For a few moments, her face began to swim strangely before my eyes, making it near impossible for me to make out her features. My legs swayed funnily and I straightened my knees suddenly, an instant reflex.

"It is Naruto-kun's shirt," She replied nervously and began to press her pale fingers together anxiously, "Is that a bad thing, Sakura-san?"

"G-Good morning, Itachi-kun," Hinata bowed to me.

I inclined my head slightly to show that I had acknowledged her bow. Judging from her opaque eyes, I guessed that she was a Hyuuga but she didn't seem very impressive from what I had seen of her. Her black shirt was four sizes far too big and was very crumpled. How could an ANBU squad member be so…so meek?

"It's not a bad thing Hinata! But…you didn't do anything…I mean, why do you have Naruto's shirt?" The pink haired girl pressed Hinata for answers.

"I brought Naruto-kun ramen this morning and he accidentally spilled it all over me. He let me borrow his shirt," Hinata explained with a small, bashful smile.

"Really?! Hey, what did he do? What did he say? Did he do anything really-" the pink haired devil began to fire off a multitude of questions and I cleared my throat loudly to get her attention.

"What do _you _want?" the irritable girl asked me rudely.

"I have no wish to stand here and listen to your conversation. You have business elsewhere," I reminded the forgetful girl.

She sighed and put a hand on Hinata's shoulder, telling her, "You _have _to tell me what happened later, okay? Come to my quarters, oh, and bring Ino with you."

Hinata's eyes flickered to mine for the briefest of seconds before she nodded quickly. I turned away from the two girls and began to briskly walk away. I heard the pink haired girl before I saw her, her leather shoes made a loud slapping noise on the wood as she ran to catch up with me. The entire structure vibrated with her running and I began to doubt whether or not this really was a stable building or not.

"You are so rude!" She exclaimed angrily.

"I have a reason to be rude. You don't," I retorted calmly and she crossed her lean arms over her ample chest, glaring at me.

"When have I been rude to anyone? And, don't get all, 'Oh, I got captured by a bunch of ANBU so I suck so bad I can do whatever I want'!" She snapped at me and I felt the urge to claw out her annoying eyes, or something to that extent. She just didn't shut up.

"You were just very rude, it seems they don't teach the children manners in the academy nowadays," I commented and her green eyes flared fiercely at me.

"I am not a child! I am a respectable nineteen year old and I also have a reason to be rude!" She argued back.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow at her antics and she nodded vigorously, placing her hands on her hips.

"I am stuck with one of the most arrogant, insensitive, rude _jerks _alive for more than three months. That's not a good thing you know!" She explained, shaking an angry finger at me.

"You will not talk about me in that way," I growled at her and she leaned forwards provocatively.

"I don't think you can tell me what to do, Uchiha-_kun_ because I can do whatever I want here. This is _my _territory, not yours! Anyways, you're just a heartless jerk who killed anyone and everyone you could to get those stupid eyes-" She began.

I don't know what came over me but I just had to shut her up. I grabbed her by the chin and covered her mouth with a calloused hand, ignoring her wide eyed expression of unguarded fear as I did so. I stared deep into her eyes; my own hardened over so that they looked like chips of iced blood. She looked as if her heart had just stopped beating and I congratulated myself inwardly on having such an intimidating effect on people.

I hissed at her, "Do not talk about things that are far beyond your own comprehension."

I released her then, turning to continue the way we were headed and she made no move to catch up to me, settling for the farthest away she could stay. It was obvious I had frightened her and that was the way it should have been, although I did find her silence somewhat unsettling. I said nothing though and the both of us remained that way for a long time.

"Shut up, you blondie!" A voice I instantly recognized to be Kisame's gruffly yelled. For a moment, I thought he was yelling at Deidara again and that we were back at the headquarters. He and Kisame had this sort of love hate relationship, but when they argued Deidara always seemed to win.

"I won't shut up, you stupid fish face!" An equally rough voice yelled back.

Their loud voices made my head hurt and throb uncontrollably; I sighed inwardly. Deidara would never have come up with such a ridiculous and unoriginal comeback. Annoying as he was, you had to give him some credit for his arguments. A door opened loudly and I looked at it through the corner of my eye and saw a tall, broad shouldered blonde man standing angrily in its doorway. Sakura stopped and I was yanked backwards by an annoying force other than gravity. The blonde haired man's blue eyes flickered to me and his left eye gleamed strangely as he did so.

The pink haired girl ran up to this boy and I was ungracefully pulled along. I gave up resisting; I would look like a silly idiot if I was seen trying to resist it. The girl ran up to this boy and stood on his left, waving to him. The boy made no movement to suggest that he had acknowledged her and instead, his blue eyes were fixed on mine. She sighed and moved around so that she was on his right and beamed up at him.

"Hey! Sakura-chan!" The boy instantly recognized her and greeted her in a boisterous hug.

My eyes narrowed slightly at the boy; it was suspicious that he hadn't noticed her at all when she stood on his left. His right eye moved to look at her while his left eye did absolutely nothing, it simply rolled lazily in its socket. It was almost as if he had no control over it…

"Naruto, you can let go of me," Her voice was muffled by his dark shirt and I realized that this must have been the boy who had lent Hinata a shirt. The boy was tall, about three heads taller than me. He could rival Kisame when it came to height, though I was doubtful whether or not he could prove himself stronger. Kisame may not have been a genius but his brawn more than made up for it.

"Oh! Sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto apologized quickly and released her quickly, smiling brightly at her.

"It's okay but Hinata told me that she gave you something to eat," At this point, the girl raised a questioning eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Ah! Well…Sakura-chan…you see I can't give you any because…" Naruto began to stumble over his words.

"Blondie spilled the food all over Hinata. Good thing is though, she has one hell of a body," Kisame commented from somewhere behind Naruto and the pink girl's eyebrows shot up all the way into her hairline.

"What do you mean by that?" She exclaimed loudly and Kisame pushed through Naruto so that he was grinning impishly at the girl.

"She has boobs that are about the same size as yours, an hourglass figure and one nice ass," Kisame answered her bluntly and I felt the corner of my mouth twitch.

The both of us were supposed to be working on how to get out of here, but all he could do was stare at the closest girl that had a body that would obviously distract him. I would probably end up having to go and save him although he was the one always insisting that Akatsuki was a group of individuals.

"I told you not to talk about Hinata-chan like that!" Naruto snapped at the idiot shark who smirked at the blonde haired boy.

"I'm just saying what you're probably thinking," Kisame retorted smoothly.

For a moment I was taken aback by his smart comeback but then, remembering his countless arguments with Deidara, I realized that Deidara had once said that to Kisame. I had almost thought for a moment that he may have gotten that little bit smarter and more tolerable but…obviously he was just copying Deidara.

"I-I-I would never think about Hinata like that!" Naruto protested unconvincingly.

The loud mouthed girl waved a disbelieving hand at him before turning around to leave him. She then paused and turned back to him, lowering the bag, _his bag_, from her shoulder to the wooden floor. Again, my eyes narrowed at the sight of it and for a moment, something akin to fear raced through my being as I realized that they might have found the secret pocket where he and I kept our last conversation. My hand snaked up to my neck to pull on my coloured necklace twice before I let my hand drop. It had become something of a habit ever since Shisui's death and I found I couldn't quite stop it. I wasn't quite aware of when I did it but it did happen.

"Isn't that Sasuke's bag?" Naruto asked the girl curiously and she nodded.

"Yeah, it is. But, can you give it to him for me? He comes to see you more than he does me so you'll have more of a chance. Anyways, I can't give it to him with _this _thing behind me," She jabbed over her shoulder at me and I glared piercingly at her.

I could feel Kisame's gaze boring a hole into my neck and I ignored him, I didn't quite care what he thought about me at the moment. I told the girl bluntly, "You're wasting my time, if this is all you needed to do then go back to your quarters."

"You can't tell me what to do!" The girl snapped at me and I turned away from her, setting off at a quick pace.

I heard her squeak of protest as she realized that the whole magnet force necklace wasn't one sided and that I too could use it to my own advantage. She was yanked along behind me as I had been many times before and I revelled in the fact that she was finally getting what she deserved.

"Hey, hey, _hey_ stop going so fast!" She yelled at me and I ignored her, opting to go even faster just to annoy her.

She began to run behind me, speeding up gradually. I ran even faster, I wasn't about to let this _pathetic _excuse for a medic-nin beat me when it came to speed. I could see her barely straining to keep out of the necklace's boundaries and as soon as her quarters with the blob shaped stain on the shojo screen came into sight, I slowed down the slowest bit, knowing that she wouldn't ever be able to beat me anyways. Much to my dismay though, she sped up suddenly and began to run at full tilt so I was yanked forwards suddenly and into an unbalanced sprint. My eyes narrowed at her and I began to run even faster, faster until we were neck to neck and both heading for the entrance at breakneck speed.

Unfortunately, we both reached the entrance at exactly the same time and the girl stupidly tripped over the short ledge that stood in the middle of the doorway. As she fell, she brought me down with her as she knocked into my back and the both of us ended sprawled up on the floor, a position unbefitting for someone of my status. If only I had my weapons; this girl would have been deader than the other annoying ninja before her. My leg had somehow managed to get lodged in between hers, her head had hit my chest rather forcefully and she leaned against my chest, trying to recover from her fall. My head began to throb and I guessed that this was probably what she was feeling.

The sudden urge to vomit was unexpected and I all but threw her off of me. I heard a loud bang as she hit the wall and, although my back began to hurt like someone had just decided it would be fun to dump a shipload of bricks on my back, I made my way over to the window and stuck my head out of it. My red eyes became focussed and unfocussed as I tried to settle my wretched stomach by staring out at the green.

"Urgh…ow…" I could hear her grumbles of protest as she began to stir.

I began to relax and she snapped at me, "What was that about? Throwing a woman against a wall, you are a rude, rude, rude jerk!"

I looked at her sideways and turned my head quickly back to the greenery, staring at it until I could make out every single fibre on the leaves. I retorted smoothly, "You are nothing more than a foolish girl."

"I'll have you know, I am a _very _respectable medic-nin and Tsunade-" She began to protest.

Her constant talking was making my head hurt even more and I needed to find a way to shut her up. I pushed off of the windowsill and walked towards her, lifting my hands up to grasp either side of her face firmly. She instantly recoiled from me but I kept my grip on either side of her face and pressed my forehead against hers. My dark red eyes bored into her green ones and just like that, all of her pride had disappeared in a flash. She shut up instantly and I could see the fear flickering in the depths of her emerald orbs, she was terrified of me.

She was paralyzed to the spot, so even when I withdrew my hands from her face and walked off; she remained where she was like a statue. Her jade green eyes were wide open and I took my seat on the windowsill, resting my back against a wall. My eyes closed and I tried to shake the feeling of illness, although I knew very well it was upon me.

_**Sakura**_

Night came and I stared at the half written report in annoyance. I had to write on my futon because Itachi was way too stubborn and refused to move from the windowsill. I have no idea what he found so interesting about it, it was just a freaking windowsill! The black characters were really messy and the paper had various pen holes and crumples. I knew that if Iruka ever saw this report I would get whacked upside the head with a ruler, or something to that extent. I eventually gave up writing the report because it had gotten near impossible to read and put it to a side, sighing.

"Eh, Uchiha-kun, what's up with you and that windowsill anyways?" I asked Itachi curiously.

For a couple of moments, Itachi pretended he hadn't heard me. I continued to stare at him and I knew it annoyed him.

"It is none of your concern," He retorted coldly.

"It's my windowsill," I snapped back and he ignored me, his face turned away from me.

I looked down at the unfinished report and sighed again, pushing it as far away as I could. I looked back at Itachi and saw his eyes flicker back to the windowsill; he had been watching me, even though he said I was very uninteresting!

"Whatever. I'm going to sleep so don't do anything that will wake me up," I ordered him and he ignored me, as usual. I doubted he would do anything loud anyways, he seemed the quiet, stealthy type. Then again, he also seemed like the sort of guy who killed for fun so…

"Good night," I murmured quietly and wasn't surprised when I didn't get a reply.

Hmph. Jerk.

-

I don't know what made me wake up first, the smell or the sound.

All I knew was that it smelt nasty, like a sewage pipe, and it sounded really, really, really gross.

I shot up out of bed and covered my nose instantly, "Urgh, it smells like crap in here…"

I looked up at Itachi, who had taken off all of his clothing except for his pants (thankfully). His discarded clothing was thrown around the room and he was staring out of the window with glassy, yellow eyes. I could see the sweat on his body glimmering in the moonlight his slight trembling. His fists were clenched in an attempt to hide his condition.

"Uchiha-kun?" I called his name quietly and stood up to walk to his side.

My voice didn't seem to register in his mind and he continued to stare out the window, at the greenery. I repeated his name four more times and began to grow worried; I had learned from the day I had spent with him that if you nagged him enough he would eventually answer. I shut the window but his gaze remained fixated on the dull white window screen.

His mouth began to form soundless words and I watched, transfixed, as his strong masculine mouth opened and closed. His hands were clutched around a beaded necklace hung around his neck and he was holding onto it as if his life depended on it. I couldn't make out anything he was saying and realized that he must have been awfully and terribly sick. I took his head of black hair into my hands, running my thumbs soothingly over his cheeks. It helped to calm my patients down and although he seemed pretty calm, his mind must have been in a lot of inner turmoil.

I gasped as my skin came into contact with his, he was burning up! He must have been sick the whole day to be like this; a fever this serious didn't just come and go. I growled something under my breath that would have made Tsunade proud at Itachi and sat on his legs in an attempt to get closer to him. I had no time to think about the position we were in, though if I had I probably would have blushed as red as a tomato.

"Come on, come on, come on," I hissed a mantra under my breath as I moulded cool green chakra to my fingertips to try and soothe his burning forehead.

When my chakra didn't have any affect, I cursed loudly. My gaze travelled to the pink watch near my futon and realized that I would have to move him on my own, seeing as it was about two in the morning and everybody was resting after the mission. I wasn't exactly in top form, bruised, battered and not quite altogether, after my ordeal with the Mangekyou Sharingan and all. Even so, I managed to somehow lift him and he simply slumped against me lifelessly; he was about as strong as a weed about now.

I lowered him gently to the floor and cursed, wondering how the hell I'd be able to get what I needed when it was more than five metres away. If I tried to get anything, I'd end up dragging Mr. Ungrateful with me and I didn't want to move him in the condition he was currently in. I cursed and bored a hole into my cupboard, as if simply staring at it would make it magically open. I stood up and decided to test how far I _could _go without being dragged backwards. Something suddenly pulled me back down and I realized that it was Itachi, gripping my shirt tightly. His closed eyes opened, ever so gradually, and he stared blearily at me.

His vision must have been working because if anything, he began to lean closer to me and he didn't let go of my shirt. I could see the wrinkles forming in my shirt because of his brute force and he asked me in a quiet, raspy voice, "Where's…Shisui…? Ayame-san…Ayame-san…where…"

I didn't know who he was on about, but all the same I gently took his hand and when I found I couldn't remove it at all, I murmured, "Uchiha-kun, please let go of my shirt."

"Ay…Ayame-san? Where's…where's Shisui?" Itachi asked me, his usually stoic and emotionless voice took on an almost pleading note as he pulled me down closer to him.

"Where's…where's Shisui? Ayame-san…" He repeated brokenly but then his eyes began to fog over.

His eyes closed and he fell still. Instantly, I set to work, resting my hands on either side of his head and concentrated on sending a constant wave of chakra through his being to try and regulate his body temperature.

It wasn't working.

I had no idea what to do, I was good when it came to healing but I hadn't ever been given a patient with something like _this_! The back of my throat and the corners of my eyes were beginning to burn uncontrollably and my hands shook although I tried my best to keep them stable. I didn't care what time it was anymore, I couldn't do this! Not with the amount of chakra I had and my current state of mind! I needed somebody else to do it, I couldn't do this on my own…he would…he could die if I didn't get him help.

My plea came out as a hoarse whisper the first time around, "Help…"

I let out a shaky breath and felt my eyes blurring due to the liquid forming in their corners. I screamed out louder, "Somebody, wake up!"

It was all I could do to keep my chakra flowing. I was nearly at the end of it and I couldn't, I _wouldn't_ let him die. I couldn't do that…I couldn't lose another patient.

"Naruto! Sasuke! Someone, wake up!" I screamed loudly, my words barely distinguishable.

I was beginning to lose control of my chakra. I didn't have much left and it was leaking into Itachi like a sponge and water, I couldn't hold this up much longer! Why didn't they wake up?

"Hinata! Wake up!" I shrieked as loud as I could before breaking into a fit of tears.

I pressed my forehead against Itachi's and ignored the fact that my tears were dripping onto his face, gasping every now and again to take in some much needed breath. I continued to scream, though my words were akin to mangled screams, again and again.

And then finally, I heard the door roll open and someone take frantic footsteps towards me.

I resisted wildly as someone tried to pull me away from Itachi and screamed frantically, my mind crazed and all irrational thought thrown out of the window. However, the person holding me was strong and I had no chance against him. Eventually I broke down, slumping into this person's warm and toned chest and recognized the low, rough rumble of Naruto's voice as he spoke to me consolingly. I heard more footsteps and Sasuke's authorative voice reached my ears next; he was giving orders for Hinata to heal Itachi and take my place.

"No! I can't- I can't mess up again!" I screamed loudly and I could barely make out Sasuke's figure walking briskly towards me.

He took my face into his hands and pressed his forehead against mine, forcing me to stare into his pair of dark red Sharingan pinwheel eyes. Something about this seemed too familiar and too dangerous but my body was frozen up with fear, I couldn't move and I couldn't do anything. Sasuke's eyelids began to close slowly over his terrifying Sharingan eyes and I found myself captivated as his eyes opened and closed slowly…open…close…open…

Close…

* * *

A/N: I found the ending a bit random. Did you guys? 

Anyways, Kisame and Naruto have finally come in. I'm trying to build a LOT on their relationship so...yeah. Cool, no? They're like the pathetic attempt at comic relief in this story. Hopefully Itachi's in character.

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear who finds that writing her signature takes forever)**

**_OH YEAH! I'm looking for a beta so if you've got waaaaaay too much free time on your hands could you send me an email or a review or something?_**

**_and..._**

**_fanfictionfanart is very much appreciated. (is there such a word?)_**


	4. The End of Reason

**Chapter 4: The end of reason**

**A/N: Hey there. Guess who's back and updating this at 7:20 AM? Yeah! Me! Anyways, there's gonna be a really long time between updates now...I have this show going on so yeah. I have appointed a beta (hoohoo, go ninjaxbunny) and I'm sorry if I didn't accept your request. This is the first ever beta'ed chapter so...go me!**

**And ninjaxbunny.

* * *

**

_There are some things you just can't describe._

_**Kisame**_

I stared out of the window aimlessly; my black eyes glassily looked out at everything and nothing. I wasn't focussing on anything in particular…I was just listening for _that _sound.

"Eh, sushi man, aren't you worried about Itachi?" Naruto's loud, deep voice asked me curiously.

I said nothing at all first, too intent on my task of looking and listening for _it_. When Naruto repeated his question, louder than before, his question sunk in.

"No," I replied curtly.

I straightened up suddenly because _that _scent had reached my nose and my gills were flapping in anticipation. I waited and waited, listening for it…

"What?! He's your friend; you should be worried about him!" Naruto yelled at me angrily and I drew my attention away from the open window to look at him flatly.

In a quiet, uncharacteristic voice, I explained to him calmly, "We are merely partners. In our field, in _Akatsuki_, friends become nothing more than a hindrance and interfere with our work. Itachi-san and I have no need of friends."

Naruto made a loud, annoyed sound and snapped at me, "Everyone needs friends! You just…you just can't have any! Honestly-"

My head turned suddenly, as _that_ sound finally came and as my skin tingled in delight. Naruto stopped speaking the moment my head turned and I lifted an arm out of the window, rolling up my sleeve so that I could catch it on my dry, parched skin.

Finally, it had come.

"Urgh, it's raining _again?! _I wish it wasn't rainy season, the rain is really stupid," Naruto whined, our previous argument forgotten quickly.

"Shut up," I murmured to him, wanting to enjoy my moment of peace.

The rain only came every so often, and I treasured it whenever it came. I knew that Itachi-san was also fond of the rain but it meant much, much more to me than it did him. I had always been feared or criticized out of fear of my skin and my appearance. Even my own father, my own _family, _had been terrified of me. My mother had had to give me up, how could she hold a child whose skin would only damage her further?

But…the rain didn't discriminate.

The rain…it fell on everyone.

"Hey, what's wrong with you fish face?" Naruto demanded boisterously.

"It's raining," I answered him absentmindedly and he made a small 'pfft' sound.

"I know that! What's so special about it, it's only rain!" Naruto grumbled in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest.

I didn't answer his question and he muttered something darkly under his breath, standing up to walk to the other side of the room. The both of us remained in silence for what seemed about an hour and I tried my best to come up with a proper answer to his question that wasn't really a question.

"The rain…" I began confidently.

I stopped uncertainly, unsure of what to say next.

Naruto stopped rifling through the dark green bag he had been messing around with and straightened up to look at me. I let my gaze linger on his lively blue eyes and then cupped my blue hands, catching a few of the raindrops in my open palm.

I brought them close to my face and gazed, transfixed, at its glossy surface. My reflection stared back at me through melancholy eyes and I felt as if I were staring through a window to another world. The fragile beauty of the mirror-like rain captivated me and I found I had no idea what to say. I fell silent and Naruto shook his head in exasperation at me, realizing that I had nothing to say to him. He returned to the scuffed bag he had forgotten about earlier.

"_What is the rain?"_

_**Itachi**_

When I woke up, the feeling of having something extremely heavy whacked into your head repeatedly and then having ice cold water dunked on your head, just to spite you, was the feeling that overcame me instantly.

I left my eyes closed and let my chest rise up and down at a moderate pace. I would wake up fully in a moment or two; there was no need to wake up immediately. I could vaguely remember a few things and when my mind began to fully clear I let myself rest for a little longer.

I remembered vomiting out of an open window and feeling unbearably hot, hotter than I had ever been before. Everything beyond that was a blur, but I faintly remembered a lot of screaming and that my face had been wet. In an act of frustration, I tugged on the necklace around my neck twice before letting my hand drop.

"Good morning, Itachi-san," An unhurried, unworried voice rang out to greet me and I sat up to face whoever it was addressing me.

Something heavy pressed down on my legs and I let my cold eyes flicker down to them curiously. A shock of pink greeted me and I was instantly disgusted, pushing the annoying girl's head off of my legs. Although I was abusing her, she didn't wake up and I moved as far away as I could without slipping out of the white, sterile futon I was rested in.

"You shouldn't do that, you know," The same unrushed voice from before drawled and I looked up at the speaker.

A spiky, silver haired man sat at the girl's rosewood writing desk on a wooden chair that didn't look in the least bit comfortable, his single onyx black eye stared at me unashamedly. His onyx one eyed gaze would have certainly been called unsettling by most people, but it lost its affect on me. A battered and well used forehead protector covered his other eye, and it was only when I saw the navy dark blue mask drawn up over his mouth and nose that I recognized him.

"Copy-nin, Hatake-san," I stated flatly.

He smiled a small, tired, half-hearted smile at me and I could only distinguish that it was a smile through the slight crinkle in his eye and the crease in his dark mask. He said to me casually, "Call me Kakashi."

My dark eyes narrowed at him and I told him bluntly, "I don't believe we are on a first name basis, Hatake-san."

The Copy-nin shrugged and rested his elbows on his knees, leaning forwards so that he could get a closer look at me. The both of us continued our long, staring game and when he realized that I wouldn't speak unless spoken to, he broke the tense silence.

"You shouldn't have done what you did earlier to Sakura-chan," Hatake-san repeated seriously.

I could tell he was hinting at me to ask why and I found it annoying. I retained my usual stoic expression and spoke, "You do not have the right to tell me what I should and should not do."

"Well, you're right there but I can give you a few…guidelines," He pointed out and my cool, red eyes narrowed slightly at him.

He could give me all the guidelines he wanted, but I wouldn't follow them. Nobody told me how to do things, I did whatever I wished. He knew as well as I did that it was pointless to give me such.

"Sakura-chan stayed up four nights in a row. Her hands are bleeding from overuse of chakra and she nearly killed herself three times just to heal you," Hatake-san explained to me, his one eyed gaze pierced through me.

"If you are trying to make me feel bad about how I am treating the girl, I'm afraid that you are nowhere near your goal," I said smoothly and he shrugged indifferently.

"I'm not trying to do any of that, Itachi-san. I'm just giving you an idea of what she's like," He replied enigmatically.

He walked slowly to the door in his annoying, unhurried fashion and waved a hand over his shoulder lazily. The rice paper screen door shut quietly after him and I stared at the chair he had been sitting on for a few moments before shaking my head vigorously to clear it of all troubling thoughts.

I looked out of the window and found that it was raining. I instantly thought of Kisame and knew he would be glad it was finally raining after day after day of the same useless humidity. As I continued to stare out of the window, a rustle of cloth alerted me that someone was there.

A split second later, a crouched figure appeared on the windowsill and instantly I wished I were unconscious. I thought of pretending to fall asleep but the person on the windowsill had already seen me, it was far too late to do so under their keen, observant, pale green eyes.

"Hey…Itachi-san," A deep, smooth voice greeted me.

A person of medium stature remained crouched on the windowsill, their blonde hair flapping about their face. There was something hard about his features, be it the strong chin or the sharp eyes he had, despite the slight lazy smirk that never seemed to reach his icy eyes. A fringe of near white blonde hair covered one of his eyes and the rest of it was tied up into a ridiculously high ponytail that looked like a puffball. A trademark black, red and white Akatsuki cloak instantly gave away who they were and it was only then I realized I had absolutely no idea where mine was, and at the moment I didn't care much.

"You will leave this place. Now," I growled at him flatly.

His smirk widened into something a bit more sadistic and he jumped down from the windowsill to approach me. He ignored the sleeping girl at my side but he instead looked down at me from where he stood.

Then he burst out into peals of deep laughter.

"Leave," I snapped at him through clenched teeth, his deep, grating laughter was truly beginning to get on my nerves.

"Aren't you glad to see me, Itachi-san? It's been so long, yeah?" The man tried to provoke me.

I remained silent and began to stand up to face the man; I was not going to be belittled by anyone. As I stood, my vision began to whiten around the edges but I managed to stay standing. I glared coolly at the man who was obviously a tad bit unsettled by the intensity of my glare.

"But, it's true then, yeah? You've been captured by the Konoha ANBU and…" The man burst into laughter again and held onto his stomach with a pale white hand as his stomach began to hurt from all the laughing.

"Deidara, if you are simply here to piss me off then leave," I snapped at him.

My legendary self control always seemed to fray at the edges whenever Deidara came along. The urge to kill him was irresistible at times, and this was one of those times.

Usually, he was terrified to the death of me but my capture had given him obvious confidence. It annoyed me that a brief obstacle could make someone think that I would be stuck in this hellhole forever and I certainly didn't want to be the reason for Deidara's suddenly prideful ego.

"Oh, I've touched a nerve, yeah? And you're still as boring as usual but you can't even stand on your own two feet properly!" Deidara obviously found this hilarious and I waited for his laughing fit to end.

"What are you here for?" I growled at him, it was more a statement than a question, but statement or not he got the point.

"You're still always to the point, yeah? Anyways, the Boss just wanted me to confirm you and Salmon-chan are here," Deidara's grin spread across his face until he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Now that you have confirmed it, leave," I ordered him and he shrugged uncaringly.

He took a glance down at the girl and managed a quick, sarcastic remark, "I didn't know pink was your colour, yeah."

"It isn't," I hissed at him.

Deidara smirked at me and all of a sudden disappeared. My reflexes weren't exactly what they once were because when I felt his cold, repulsive lips pressed lightly against my own, I instantly lashed out at him with a muscled arm but he had already danced away. I grabbed the stone inkwell sitting on the wooden writing desk and flung it with all my might at Deidara who was sitting on the windowsill, swinging his legs back and forth mischievously.

"Ja, bye bye, Itachi-san!" Deidara snickered as he dropped out of the window, the inkwell narrowly missing his blonde head.

I made a quick mental note to myself.

After escaping from this place of torture and killing each and every one of the members of this pathetic ANBU squadron, Deidara was going to die a slow, painful, torturous death.

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

"Hey, hey, Kakashi-sensei, can I go see Sakura-chan now?" I whined loudly, hoping my whining would eventually get on his nerves.

"No," He replied bluntly, flicking through a page of his Icha Icha porno magazine disinterestedly.

Kisame was still sitting on that damn windowsill, he hadn't moved from that spot ever since the rain started. I was really getting annoyed with him; it was almost as if he was dead or something.

"Why not?" I pressed him further.

"Because she's sleeping," He said coolly and flicked through another papery page.

"But I'll be really quiet! Sakura-chan won't know I'm there!" I yelled at him in protest and Kakashi ignored me, peering at his book for closer inspection.

"You're never quiet, dumbass," Kisame snapped at me and I got to my feet, pointing angrily at the bluish shark relation.

"I can be really quiet when I want to! So shut up, stupid fish face!" I yelled at him and Kisame instantly stood up, walking towards me with a renewed light in his black eyes.

"You can't tell me to be quiet!" He shouted back and I put my hands on my hips.

"I can tell anyone to be quiet!" I retorted.

"It's not like they'll listen to you," He pointed out and I opened my mouth angrily to snap something back at him, but snapped it shut again when I found I didn't have anything to say back to him.

Kakashi snapped his book shut and stood up, brushing imaginary dust off of his front. He turned away from us and walked briskly towards the door. I could sense he was angry, but I didn't know why.

He pulled open the door and glanced at me with a serious onyx eye. He told me solemnly, "Naruto…don't get attached to him. He _will _be dead at the end of all of this."

The door slammed shut behind him and the whole structure shuddered with the force of the slam. I yelled after him, "It's not like I would!"

I sat down on the floor and crossed my arms over my chest, looking up at the white, peeling ceiling. Kisame had returned to his seat on the windowsill and continued to stare out of it, a mysterious light in his black onyx eyes. I decided not to speak to him and instead thought about Kakashi's words.

Kisame…he would die at the end of all of this…wouldn't he? And he deserved it, after all of the people he killed…didn't he?

I had known him to be a cruel, heartless, sadistic bastard before this but…was he really as bad as that?

_**Haruno Sakura**_

I woke up gradually and my jade green eyes flickered open. As soon as the dim light spilled into my tired eyes, they snapped shut again and I groaned quietly. My back hurt like a bitch, honestly, and my neck was definitely cramped.

And I could only wonder…what the hell did I do to get like this?

I opened my eyes again and kept them open this time, allowing them to take in everything through blurry and tired pupils. A stunning whiteness was all that registered in my mind until I sat up.

Well, the mystery of my aching back and neck was solved. I had fallen asleep sitting down. Eurgh, how the hell had I managed that?

A quiet drizzling noise greeted my ears and I looked out of the window, finding the reason for my aching back sitting on the windowsill and the pouring rain that made the soothing sound. I grumbled as I stood up and walked over to Itachi quickly.

He was far too absorbed in the rain and if he had noticed my awakening, he had chosen to ignore it. He had a hand clasped around the beaded necklace I had seen before and he had wrapped himself in his half-repaired Akatsuki cloak. His dark red eyes took on a faraway quality that I found so strange in his face; he didn't seem like the contemplative type.

"Are you feeling better?" I asked him quietly and he continued to stare out of the window, ignoring the raindrops that fell onto his pale, porcelain face.

The two long scars that ran from his tear ducts downwards made him seem so much older and in the state he was in, it only made him look even more fatigued. The dark hair that framed his tired features was matted and not quite as glamorous as it had first been and I remembered that the neither of us had had a shower for a week or more. Eurgh, we must have smelt nasty.

"Uchiha-kun?" I pressed him for an answer and he finally let his hand drop to look at me with his piercing red eyes.

"My health does not concern you," He told me flatly and for a moment, my face fell.

I replaced my crestfallen expression with one of anger and I snapped at him irritably, "It damn does! I stayed up for more than five nights because _you_ had to get a stupid fever! And, Tsunade-sama wouldn't appreciate it if you suddenly keeled over and died before you undergo trial. I think that your 'thank you for killing yourself over me Sakura' is well over-due!"

"Nobody asked you to stay up. I have no need to thank you," Itachi pointed out coolly.

"B-But-" I stuttered in protest and he silenced me with a sharp look.

"You are annoying me. There is no need for me to explain any further, Sakura," He stated bluntly and his eyes left mine to resume staring out of the window.

I left him in a huff, wondering not for the first time why I had actually _volunteered _to room with an arrogant prick like him. It was like he had a fucking stick shoved up his ass or something and he was just so…so…so…argh!

I mimicked him in a high, quiet voice, "You are annoying me. There's no need for me to explain any further, Sakura."

Then, I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

"_You are annoying me. There's no need for me to explain any further…**Sakura**."_

Wait a minute. He…he…

He said my **name**? Mr. I-am-so-much-cooler-than-you-so-you-should-go-die said my **name**?

He didn't call me _girl_ or something like that?

…he called me…Sakura?

HELL YEAH!

I didn't quite know why I was so excited that he had simply called me by my first name, hell, everyone did that but it was just so…so…nice being called Sakura by him. Ew, I didn't just say _nice_ did I? I didn't mean nice! I meant…uh…

Well, I couldn't quite place my finger on it but suffice to say, I was happy.

I stole a glance at the quiet, blunt S class criminal and felt the quickest of grins flicker across my face. I found I couldn't quite wipe it off until a full five minutes later and remembered that I hadn't showered in more than a week. I shuddered in disgust and walked over to my drawers, but then I felt the necklace try and pull me back towards Itachi.

"Uchiha-kun, I need to take a shower so I need you to come with me…" I trailed off towards the end of my sentence. My jade green eyes widened suddenly and I waved my hands around in the air quickly at his raised eyebrows.

"I don't mean it that way! I mean, the necklace would restrict me from moving far away from you so I mean-" I stuttered in embarrassment hurriedly.

He stood up and brushed past me, leaning against the wall to the side of the rice paper door. I was a bit surprised at his compliance but I wasn't about to complain about it; a compliant Itachi was better than a stubborn one after all. I went over to the drawers without the annoying tug from before and pulled out a spare change of clothing from inside, making sure to fold my clothes and hide my underwear from Itachi. I then turned to the cupboard and pulled it open, groaning when I realized that the towels were on the top shelf.

"How the hell am I going to get those?" I thought aloud, looking up at the three demure looking towels. I knew that Itachi wouldn't help me get them; he was a jerk anyways so I needed to go find Shikamaru again…

I stole a quick glance at Itachi, maybe if he was so compliant today he would help me get them…just maybe…

He returned my gaze coolly and made no move to help me out, as I had expected. I muttered darkly about him under my breath, deciding to go for much trickier plan B. I pressed my hands against the inner walls of the cupboard and put one foot on the wall before hopping up so that my entire body was in a star shape. I began to scale the walls in that fashion and snatched at two towels before my hands and feet gave way and I collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"Ow…" I whined, rubbing my backside as I stood up and picked up the drab looking towels.

Itachi simply looked at me and I could smell his annoyance and…well, something else. I wrinkled my nose and threw a towel at him, which he caught easily. He looked down at it before looking back up to me with raised eyebrows.

"You're taking a shower," I told him.

"You cannot tell me what to do," he growled at me and he tried to press the towel into my hands, but I stubbornly refused to take it.

"No. You are taking a shower; you haven't had one in more than a week so take one," I remained resolute and he reluctantly shouldered the towel, realizing this was a fight he couldn't win.

He turned away from me and opened the shojo screen, walking out of the door before I did. I grumbled as I ran to get ahead of him; he had no idea where he was going even if he did like to pretend he did. It was only then I remembered that he only had one change of clothing and that those would probably smell pretty bad too…so…

I glanced back at him and tried to think of who looked about his size. Naruto wouldn't work…he was a lot bigger than Itachi anyways. Sasuke would sooner dress in Naruto's neon orange jacket before he gave Itachi anything and Ino and Hinata were out of the question since I didn't think Itachi would be happy in anything…dressy. Shikamaru…well, having been in his quarters before, he wasn't the cleanest person and it would probably take me months to find anything clean in his pile of clothing.

Then…that only left…

Kakashi.

I groaned and began to drag myself across the wooden suspension bridges, grumbling about how Kakashi was so damn annoying and that he thought he was so cool. It was true though, he thought that just because he had a mask he looked cool.

Ok, maybe he did look cool but that was beside the point!

I sighed and stopped in front of Kakashi's quarters, the smallest room in the whole place. Not that Kakashi minded, as long as he had somewhere to read his porno and sleep he was happy. I walked right up to Kakashi's door and pulled the shojo screen open rudely, stepping in without announcing myself.

"It's very impolite to enter before you knock," A lazy baritone voice reprimanded me and I shot the speaker a glare, pointing accusingly at him.

"Not that you'd know anything about being polite, Kakashi-sempai," I snapped at him and he shrugged, his mask straining as he smiled at me.

"Well, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Kakashi asked me and I looked around his spotless room, shocked at the cleanliness compared to someone like Naruto or Shikamaru.

"Uh…well, Uchiha-kun and I were going to go take a shower so he needs clothes…" I replied absentmindedly, unaware that my sentence had just sounded extremely suggestive.

It was only when Kakashi's smile widened and his black eye took on a strange quality I realized my tragic error. My entire body was disgusted at the idea of sharing a shower with…with…with _Itachi _of all people. I wasn't about to sleep with someone so arrogant and self absorbed like him!

"I didn't mean it that way! Just let me borrow some clothes for him!" I snapped at the perverted ninja who shrugged.

"There are clothes lying on my bed. I was going to change into them but Itachi-san obviously needs them more than I do," He poked fun at me a bit and I fought the very tempting urge to rip his head off with my teeth.

"You're so annoying!" I snapped at him and his onyx eye suddenly hardened over.

"Don't grow attached to him, Sakura. You know that he will be dead at the end of all of this," He stated unexpectedly and a tense silence filled the room.

My already stressed out mind froze suddenly at his words and it was a long time before I started to think properly again.

"I-" I began heatedly but surprisingly, Itachi stepped in and took the clothes off of the bed without a word.

I fell silent and instead settled for shooting Kakashi a death glare that would have made Naruto wet himself and huffed indignantly. Itachi then turned for the door and Kakashi followed us, leaning against the doorframe to see us off.

"Oh yeah, if you want any advice you can borrow-" Kakashi started, holding up three of his Icha Icha magazines but I slammed the shojo screen in his face, truly and royally pissed off now.

I stomped off, ignoring the forceful tug of the necklace in my anger and I was barely aware that I was dragging Itachi along. I was too busy grumbling to myself and when I looked over my shoulder, I shot the Sharingan Master a death glare.

"What the hell are you doing?! We need to hurry up!" I snapped at him irritably and when his eyes narrowed, I knew I was in for another one of those 'You have no right to push me around' lectures.

"Do not push one such as I around. You will find yourself regretting that later on," He hissed at me.

I rolled my jade eyes and said sarcastically, "Oh, I'm so scared of a guy doomed to execution."

Itachi fell silent at that and I continued to walk hurriedly towards the showers. He reluctantly began to walk behind me and I didn't realize how mean my words had been until a lot later on. However, at the moment I didn't care and Kakashi had just managed to get on my nerves; he was going to die the next time he _ever _threw those magazines in my face.

The pale bath house finally came into view and I opened the sliding screen door, slipping inside first. I shut the door in Itachi's face and told him, "Wait outside, you can't come in because I'm washing."

"I don't believe there's anything worth mentioning inside," He retorted smoothly and I resisted the urge to punch his head through the thin rice paper door.

I began to take my clothes off and yelped loudly when I slipped into the ice cold wooden bath of water. I pressed my hands against either side of it and used my chakra to warm it up. I was more than thankful to whoever created chakra control when the water grew warm almost instantly and I sighed, bringing my knees higher up so that they poked out of the crystalline water and let my head slip underwater.

"**_Don't grow too attached to him, Sakura. You know he will be _dead _at the end of all of this…"_**

I sighed in frustration and closed my eyes. The smoky, spiralling fumes of the water gradually rid me of all memory of the annoying, arrogant Sharingan Master.

* * *

Next Chapter preview: The End of Solitude

**"So...we have to protect Konoha...at the cost of our own sanity?"**

_"There was someone once but...we stopped talking."_

"Hey, you want to play a game?"

* * *

**What you may be wondering...**

**Is there any hint as to why Sasuke's eye is blue?**  
It's in the previous chapter and a bit hard to find but I hope someone picked up on it.

**Will Deidara come again? Will any other members of the Akatsuki appear?  
**I didn't want to incorporate too much of the Akatsuki into this so no to the second question. As for the first one...I like Deidara but I'm writing merely from what I've heard of him. When I get around to writing Angel again and reading the Naruto timeskip manga I'll start writing with him as one of my mains. The only other time he comes into the story is at the very, very end and it's probably only going to be for a paragraph or so.

**Itachi's a bit different from how he's portrayed in other stories. What's your inspiration?  
**Haha, the inspiration from that came from reading one too many Inuyasha stories. I've always imagined Itachi and Sesshoumaru to have a somewhat similar character so I tried to mix some of Sesshoumaru's character into Itachi's description. Of course, I didn't go all the way and have Itachi going, "This Itachi will not tolerate this because you are a filthy human." Then again, what Itachi says to Sakura is sort of similar (haha, live with it). Each Itachi in each story is different, I suppose. I've seen lots; cruel, possessive, angsty, emotionless but I like him proud. Uchiha pride, lol.

**Why's Naruto all shy around women? I thought he's a very outgoing character!  
**Hm, haven't you ever noticed that the boys who talk about perverted things the most are mostly the ones afraid to do anything relationship-wise? Then again, it may just be because of my age and the guys in our Year haven't exactly matured much so...

**Urgh, this is a Sasuke suddenly appears from the Sound Village and comes back to Konoha story?  
**Yeah, yeah, I know it's unrealistic but I got lazy. And I'm not about to rewrite this a second time so phooey.

**Where have Ino and Shikamaru gone? And, where the hell's everyone else?  
**Weeeell, I know there are probably a lot of Shikamaru and Temari fans out there so I'm not about to go rile them up by writing this whole INO LOVES SHIKAMARU chapter. This story revolves around Itachi, Sakura, Kisame and Naruto (as most of my stories do). Hinata and Sasuke have an important part to play but the four aforementioned people are obviously the most important.

**Whoa, you got rid of a lot of the original work didn't you?  
**Yeah, I did. I completely revamped this story; there are going to be a lot of different things happening. The ending is still going to be the same but with different reasons behind it and I'm trying to focus on the relationship between characters, not the events that happen. The most action packed chapter is going to be a lot later on and it is actually an event from the original work.

**Does Shisui come into this?  
**YES! I don't see why people never put Shisui in their stories, it's the perfect oppurtunity to mess around with Itachi! Shisui's a cool character (well, at least he is in this story). I hope Masashi Kishimoto does a manga chapter sometime with Shisui in it. YEAH!

**Who the heck's Ayame?  
**Ayame? Ayame...well, she's important. I can't tell you too much here but I can tell you that she's very special to Itachi.

**Is Itachi's necklace still...you know?  
**Hm...it's still important to him but not for the same reasons as last time.

**...Dude, how much of this rewrite have you written?  
**Hey, don't accuse me of slacking off! I've got 7 chapters written and I'm halfway through the 8th one. It's good man. It is good.

**Why the hell are you writing this?  
**Gee, don't get so pissy! I'm doing this for your sake! (Although I doubt many of you are reading this...)

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear with a ridiculously long title that takes twenty seconds to type out.)**


	5. The End of Solitude

**Chapter 5: The End of Solitude**

_Perhaps two is better than one._

_**The quote that inspired Sakura's second question: **"What would you do if you woke up next to Mr. Moon naked?"_

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

The rain was falling again.

According to the annoying one, it was rainy season. It was only afterwards I remembered that she was right, I had memorized weather patterns in most places; seeing as the weather would obviously interfere with my fighting. In Akatsuki, you always had to be two steps ahead.

"_Oh yeah? Then why are you stuck here if you're 'two steps ahead'?" _An inner voice, nearly as annoying as Sakura jeered at me and I chose to ignore it than waste my time on such stupidity like arguing with myself.

The silence of the room bothered me and although the rain did much to soothe that annoyance, I couldn't help but feel as if it were _too _quiet. For a brief moment, I wondered if I should wake up Sakura but banished that thought in the next second. Still…I found it very strange. In Akatsuki, I had craved quiet and solitude but now…I wanted some form of noise. It was laughable, really.

I pulled in frustration on my beaded necklace, thoroughly annoyed with my strange wish. When I thought I heard the necklace snap, I looked down sharply and was relieved to find that it wasn't broken. It was far too…too important for me to break.

I stared out of the window and for a fleeting moment, I thought of throwing myself out of the window just to see what it would feel like to die. I rid myself of that stupid wish, I had far too much to accomplish before I died.

I had to break free of this prison and then return to Akatsuki. When I returned to Akatsuki, I would then be given another mission undoubtedly, and then I wouldn't have any free leave for a year or so. I would continue to go on mission after mission and eventually…die.

"Well, Shisui, what do you think about all of this?" I murmured quietly, looking out of the window and waiting, as if the pouring rain would somehow give me an answer.

When no reply came, I sighed inwardly and closed my tired eyes. I made a note to myself and realized that the rain made me sentimental; a dangerous feeling indeed in my line of work.

_**Many years ago, when I was still a twelve year old citizen of Konoha and Shisui had been alive, a small, newly opened ramen shop named Ichiraku had opened and had thus become our 'hangout'. Although Shisui was a lively and energetic person, he too enjoyed the quiet and less crowded places.**_

_**The both of us sat on the high backed, squeaky wooden chairs, waiting for our ramen to come. Shisui had always said that the ramen in Ichiraku was the best and I was inclined to agree. We had just come back from a particularly stressful ANBU mission and the both of us were silent, seeing as our mission had been more emotionally challenging than physically challenging.**_

_**Of course, you could always count on sarcastic Shisui to break the silence, eventually. Only, this time I found that he didn't seem quite altogether and I doubted that he would ever shatter the ice.**_

"_**Do you know who reported to Hokage-sama?" I asked him quietly and he nodded his head of long shaggy black hair slowly.**_

"_**I think-" He began in a hoarse voice but then stopped to clear his throat. I could see his usually sparkling eyes were glazed over with unshed tears and see him try to swallow down a lump in his throat. **_

"_**I think Genma-san went," He repeated in a stronger, if not shaky, voice. I nodded and the tentative silence raised its ugly head once again.**_

_**A man in his late thirties, the owner of Ichiraku, walked over to us and put two steaming bowls of ramen in front of us. I waited for Shisui to take a pair of chopsticks and methodically snap them before murmuring a rushed 'Itadikimasu!'. I would stare at him in disgust as he shovelled down the ramen and he would eventually end up having to run to the bathroom. But, when he didn't pick the bamboo chopsticks up at all, I was a bit surprised.**_

"_**Shisui," I called his name flatly, to check if he was listening to me, and he looked at me from the corner of his dark brown eyes. His shaggy, messy hair fell in a long brown curtain, hiding his face from me.**_

"_**We were following orders," I continued bluntly.**_

_**Shisui was uncharacteristically quiet and his silence was beginning to get on my nerves. He wasn't replying at all to my words and the tension hung in the air, like a thick fog. In the end, I decided it was best to leave him to brood to himself and wait for the food to come. I wondered if he would stay quiet a long time; it wasn't that I enjoyed talking to him, his voice just seemed to fill the ever present space.**_

"_**...why?" He asked me at last, in a quiet undertone.**_

_**I pulled out a pair of wooden, disposable chopsticks from their blue and white porcelain cup and snapped them. I looked at him and questioned in a flat tone, "Why what?"**_

"_**Why…why didn't we stop it?" Shisui repeated brokenly and I almost raised an eyebrow at his question.**_

_**His question came as a sort of surprise. I had never once thought that we should have stopped it; orders were orders. **_

_**Finally, I answered, "There was no need to."**_

_**Shisui's head snapped up and he shot me a glare which would have made hell itself freeze over. He hissed at me, "You're telling me there was no need to stop the **massacre **of an entire village?"**_

_**I raised an eyebrow and retorted coolly, "The Dragonfly country posed a threat to us."**_

_**Shisui let out a loud, harsh laugh. Suddenly, his entire demeanour changed and he snapped sharply, "They never attacked us! We killed them simply because they got in the way and because we were ordered to."**_

"_**In the long run they would eventually attack us and kill whoever they got their hands on, even our civilians. We have been formed to protect Konoha at all costs, not to protect anyone else," I told him calmly and he leaned back in his squeaky chair, staring with a set jaw up at the green and white marquee ceiling.**_

_**I could see he was fighting an inner battle with himself and made no move to help him. This was something he obviously had to get through alone. **_

"_**So…we have to protect Konoha, even at the cost of our own sanity?" He whispered brokenly.**_

_**The rain didn't come in a steady drizzle as it normally did, it just suddenly began to beat down torrentially upon the green and white striped marquee that covered us from the elements. I picked up my chopsticks again and ignored the sound of the falling rain, leaving Shisui's question unanswered.**_

"Uchiha-kun?" The sound of Sakura's voice brought me back to my senses and I turned my head to look at her.

She had a look of concern painted onto her face and I wondered how much more stupid the girl could get. She shouldn't have been _worried _for her enemies; she seemed the type who would actually heal her enemies and eventually get killed as a result of her 'good' deeds. It was amazing that she wasn't dead already; in a ninja's world open displays of compassion were perhaps one of the most life threatening things there were.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked me boldly and I remained silent, thinking about whether or not I should answer her question.

I turned my head back to the window and ignored her, pretending I had never heard her question. She sighed in exasperation and she too turned back to her own work, huddled over the writing desk.

_**Naruto**_

Kisame must have been obsessed with the rain or something. It wasn't surprising, he was a sad nasty little fishy thing as it was so…

"Hey, hey, Kisame, you know that I'm leaving soon?" I told him excitedly.

If Kisame had eyebrows, I imagined he would have raised them by now. Of course, being a fishy whatever he was, he didn't have eyebrows and he couldn't smell things either which came as sort of a relief because my room didn't exactly smell like a walk in a park.

"Oh?" He looked slightly interested and I nodded vigorously, a big, impish grin on my face.

"Yeah, and that means that I don't have to see you anymore!" I announced loudly.

He shrugged and looked out of the window, a faraway expression on his features. I realized that he wasn't in the mood for an argument and slipped into silence, watching the rain fall beyond his tall figure.

"Have you been told when my execution is?" He asked me suddenly and my expression darkened considerably.

"No. Old hag Tsunade hasn't told us yet," I murmured quietly.

It was odd. Whenever either of us mentioned the execution, we both fell dead silent. The entire mood of the room would change and neither of us would speak to one another, too wrapped up in our own thoughts.

"Do you have anyone who'll come to your execution?" I asked him curiously and the faintest hint of a smile graced his rough face.

"Nope," He replied and my brow furrowed.

"How can you not have anyone who will come? I mean…somebody's got to, right? Everyone's got somebody who cares about them," I reasoned with him and he glanced down at his sharp knees for a moment before raising his pale, scaly head.

"There was someone once but…we stopped talking," He explained indifferently.

…They just stopped talking? What the hell?!

"You can't be serious," I said in a shocked tone.

How could you _stop _being someone's special person? It wasn't something you just chose to _stop_; it was something that could never change. I was reminded of a young boy many years back from the Wave Country who died protecting his precious person and felt my unspoken protest bubble up inside of me. Before I could yell at Kisame, he answered quickly.

"I am," He replied in a dead tone.

"What happened?" I demanded angrily and he shrugged.

"She got married to someone else," He told me blatantly with the air of a person who was stating something none too important; like there wasn't much milk left in the milk carton or something like that.

"She got married to someone else?! But, but, if she's your precious person then…she's a real bitch!" I protested loudly and he shot me a quick stern glance.

"It was my choice. I left her," He defended this woman who had yet to be named. My cerulean eyes widened in shock and I gaped at him.

It was as if the metaphorical milk in the milk carton had suddenly gone sour and he was berating me for having drunken it. He was acting as if none of this was a big deal but…!

"Why the hell would you do that?" I demanded furiously and instantly, his long moment of vulnerability disappeared.

"Like I'd tell you, blondie," He snapped at me and I got to my feet suddenly, ready to beat anyone up, a certain fish face in particular.

"What did you say?!" I yelled at Kisame angrily who grinned at me, baring his razor sharp teeth.

His gills flapped slightly as I began to let out a long stream of curses that would have made even Tsunade-sama's ears bleed and he stood up, firing off a string of equally as crude curses. Our previous conversation was forgotten but I couldn't help but notice the melancholy look in his onyx eyes.

_**Sakura**_

The fear of Sasuke meeting Itachi again had all but disappeared; Sasuke had somehow managed to disappear from the base and he had been replaced with Hinata. Every now and again I would catch a glimpse of him through a crack in a shojo screen but I hadn't talked to him for a while.

I was kind of glad that Itachi was there, as weird as it sounded. Yeah, let's hang out with a mass killer for fun, why not? I guess it was just because I hated being alone but it went a bit further than that…Itachi was…he was…

Staring at the black haired Sharingan Master unashamedly, I found that I had absolutely no idea what he was to me. I knew I was treading in dangerous water by simply speaking to him much more than I had to but…well, being stuck with a man for over two months did that to you.

"Hey, you want to play a game?" I asked Itachi hopefully.

He looked at me with an expression that clearly read, 'what do you take me for, a three year old?' and he turned back to the open window. I sighed and pulled up the chair from the writing desk so that I was sitting far enough for neither of us to get too uncomfortable but close enough that he had to notice me.

"It's called the Random Question Game," I began to explain, "we both go in turns. We have to ask each other questions and then the other person _has _to answer truthfully. You can pass your turn if you don't have a question, but we can't tell anyone about what we talk about in here."

Itachi made no move to show that he had acknowledged me but I knew he was listening, he always was. It was too much to hope for that he would start off the game so I knew that I would have to.

"What's your favourite colour?" I started the game and he remained silent for a while. I doubted he would ever answer.

"There is no need for me to answer a question like that," He finally replied and I huffed at him, he was annoying!

"Fine then, it's not like you can come up with a better question," I taunted him and he continued staring out of the window. I doubted he would rise to the bait but just maybe he was thinking of a question…

I didn't have to wait long afterwards to find out what he was thinking.

And then he said bluntly, "I pass."

Men these days had no sense of fun! Honestly!

"Fine then, I'll just go again," I grumbled and began to mutter darkly about sadistic men who had no optimistic side to them.

"So…uhm…" I began to fumble for a question and then my jade green eyes lightened up considerably when I came up with the perfect idea.

"What would you do if you woke up next to Kisame naked?" I inwardly complimented myself on having found such an embarrassing question to humiliate Itachi with.

Itachi shot me a sharp look and refused to answer. "I will not answer questions that have blackmail potential."

"Urgh, you're not going to answer anything! It's your go," I threw my hands up in the air, a sign of defeat.

"I pass," He murmured and I stood up suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"You can't do that! No passes twice in a row!" I gleefully explained to him and his eyes narrowed for the briefest of moments before he turned back to the open window.

"…Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked me suddenly.

Talk about random.

"Nope. Why, you interested?" I winked at him and he kept his eyes transfixed on the pouring rain.

"I was merely thinking of giving the man my sincerest apologies," He retorted smoothly and I gasped indignantly, struggling to find a comeback to strike him down with.

"Fine! It's my turn! Do _you _have a girlfriend, Itachi-san?" I finally decided to turn his own question on him and he raised an elegant eyebrow at me, making the answer more than obvious. The pinkish scars on his face strained his skin with the slight motion and I turned my eyes away from them; feeling as if I had just taken a peek at him changing or something to that extent.

"You're such a boring person, honestly. It's your turn again," I grumbled and crossed my legs and arms, leaning back in my chair to soothe my aching back.

"I pass," He said flatly and I groaned. He was obviously milking the passes for all they were worth.

"Fine…do you have anyone you like?" I rephrased my previous question.

Itachi's eyes flickered to mine for the quickest of moments and his fists tightened slightly. I wondered if I had breached upon a forbidden subject and his body finally relaxed. He told me, "I do not."

"I didn't think so…anyways, it's your turn again," I pressed him to continue the pointless game.

Itachi thought for a long time before he finally asked me a question.

"You have to buy a drink from a vending machine and there are two vending machines near you. One vending machine sells cheaper drink cartons and the other sells expensive aluminium canned drinks but all the drinks are the same despite the fact that they're in different packaging. Which vending machine do you buy drinks from?" He asked me, turning his head of midnight hair to look at me.

His face was utterly emotionless and piercing and there wasn't a single hint of a smile. I realized he was being absolutely serious about the question and I was lost for words.

I then burst out laughing.

* * *

Preview for next chapter: No More Attempts

"_I don't like him! Who would like him anyways, he's a jerk, way too prideful, stupid, arrogant, has no sense of common courtesy and…"_

"**You had no right to kill those men!"**

"It's weird how optimistic you are, blondie. It's even weirder how much you care."

"_**Itachi…you're just a child…"**_

A/N:

Hey! Lol, so you guys are smarter than I thought. I didn't think you'd figure out the whole eye business with Sasuke. I can proudly say I have written 92 pages worth of Defining Evil and I've just started making the story gradually more and more depressing. I love the flashbacks with Itachi, Shisui and Ayame because it's just so cool to mess around with them. Shisui's a bit of an OC for me because Masashi Kishimoto never really went in depth with him...

OH OH OH I will now tell you the similarities between Sesshomaru and Itachi.

1. They both think they're so much better than everyone and have perfect reason to.  
2. They both fight like A WHOA.  
3. They both have younger brothers who hate them like wow.  
4. They both tried to get something important (Mangekyou Sharingan/Tetsusaiga)  
5. They both have a total disregard for human life (Uchiha Massacre/Sesshomaru being Sesshomaru)  
6. They're both the first born son of an influential family (Lord Sesshomaru of the West/Uchiha Itachi)  
7. They seem to be complete loners except for an ugly little pet. (Jaken/Kisame)  
8. They both think their younger brother is stupid. ('Foolish little brother...' / 'Filthy half breed.')  
9. They are completely and utterly emotionless.  
10. They wear big billowy clothes.  
11. It is likely that the both of them are gay. (hey, think about it. Sesshomaru's never hit on Rin and Itachi's always hanging around with Kisame)  
12. They both suddenly disappeared from their younger brother's life for a long period of time.  
13. They both have sexy eyes.  
14. They both have markings of a sort on their face.

See look, 14 things. That's freaking scary man.

BUT SESSHOMARU CAME FIRST. So waha. But I still love Itachi so awwwwwwww

* * *

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear)**


	6. Winter's End

**Chapter 6: A Scribbled Message**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

"Hey, Sakura!" Ino called my name loudly and banged loudly on the wooden frame of the rolling door repeatedly.

My eyes opened gradually and I found that my back _still _hurt like someone had just shoved needles repeatedly in my back and then poured alcohol over my wounds without any warning. Okay, maybe I was being a _little _over dramatic but it did hurt like a bitch. I opened my jade green eyes and groaned when I realized that I had fallen asleep on the wooden chair from underneath the messy writing desk. Ino's annoying banging continued and my head throbbed wildly with every harsh bang, as if some invisible force thought it funny to pound my head into oblivion. I stood up and stretched languorously before dragging myself over to the shojo screen, rolling it open reluctantly.

"I thought you'd never open the door!" Ino huffed in annoyance and I yawned widely, too lazy and too sleepy to cover my yawn.

Ino made a face and stuck her tongue out, "When was the last time you brushed your teeth, forehead girl? Your breath smells like Naruto's socks."

Something in me clicked and I forgot all about my sleepiness, straightening up and pointing an accusing finger at her, "I brushed my teeth last night, thank you very much. I just woke up, Ino."

"That's no excuse," Ino retorted and took a step past me into my room.

She put her hands on her skinny hips and whistled at what she saw inside. She threw me a glance over her shoulder and asked, "When did you get so neat? Your clothes are usually everywhere and where's that cute little teddy bear you bring around with you all the time?"

My eyes narrowed at her and I explained curtly, "I have a lot of free time on my hands nowadays and since I'm rooming with a guy, I'm not about to throw my clothes around anymore. And, Wolfie is back in Konoha."

Ino raised a perfectly plucked blonde eyebrow and questioned sceptically, "Wolfie? It's a teddy bear, Sakura."

"Shut up! I can call him whatever I want," I snapped irritably and Ino shrugged indifferently.

Her sky blue eyes scanned the room critically and they eventually came to rest upon the silent man sleeping on the windowsill. She began to walk towards him and I followed her quickly, doubtful of what Itachi would do to her if she tried anything. He was one to wake up easily.

"Hm…so this is Uchiha-kun, huh?" Ino didn't even look at me as she asked, her crystalline blue eyes were fixed on the pale faced Sharingan master.

"No, you're staring at Kisame," I told her sarcastically and she leaned in closer to Itachi. My breath hitched in my throat and I feared for Ino; Itachi could just reach out and snap her neck in two and I would be powerless to do anything.

"I'm so jealous of you, he's so hot! Just get rid of those scars and he's perfeeect!" Ino whined and began to hop up and down on the spot lightly; the wood didn't make even the slightest sound as she bounced excitedly.

I stared at her. "Itachi-san…hot? He's a killer Ino."

"So? So are we! And since when did you start calling him by his first name?" Ino smirked at me knowingly.

I opened my mouth to protest and she waved a hand at me to shut up. "Anyways, forget about that for the moment. What's he like? Has he got a hot personality to go with that sexy face? Come on, you've got to tell me!"

I burst out laughing at her ridiculous question and had to sit back down, clutching my stomach as my laughing was beginning to hurt my stomach. When I had finally calmed down, I answered her question, "Think of Sasuke and his 'I'm so much better than you so you should go die' attitude. Think of his arrogance."

Ino nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Think a million times worse and two million times more prideful," I finished.

Ino's bright face fell and her eager expression became one of utmost disgust; the kind of expression you have when you hear a squelching noise and look down at your shoe only to realize that you've stepped in doggy doo doo. She made a vomiting noise and shivered, seeing Itachi in a new light all of a sudden.

Then, she clapped a hand on my shoulder and sighed, "Well, I can't help but feel very sorry for you. Look at the bright side, you're shift is almost over so in a couple of days you'll be able to go back to Konoha and never see this prick again!"

I shrugged and looked at Itachi, my face softening as I looked at him. Ino's perfect jaw dropped at my expression and when my jade green eyes returned to hers, she had a wide grin on her made up face.

"Did you just _smile_ at Uchiha-kun?" She demanded hotly, grabbing me roughly by the shoulders. I looked at her petite hands in surprise and started at her sudden change.

"I…I think so," I stuttered uncertainly.

In a hushed whisper she asked me, "Sakura, do you like him?"

"No!" I yelled loudly and Ino put a slender finger over my lips, pointing at Itachi.

She then began to chant quietly, "Sakura's in denial, Sakura's in denial, Sakura's in denial because she likes Uchiha-kun."

"I don't like him! Who would like him anyways, he's a jerk, way too prideful, stupid, arrogant, has no sense of common courtesy and…" I trailed off towards the end of my sentence, doubtful of what to say next.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Sakura. He and you could have this huge relationship thing going on and then you could both escape to some unknown land somewhere together and get hitched. But then, you'd have to invite me to your wedding because you'd look so ugly without my expertise in make up," Ino began to rant, as she always did, and I sighed in exasperation, shoving her out of the open door.

"Goodbye Ino," I told her through gritted teeth and she beamed at me brightly, failing to realize that I was kicking her out of my room.

"And you know what-"

I slammed the shojo screen in her face and huffed angrily, turning around.

"Ino is such a dumbass," I muttered darkly to myself.

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

I found myself with far too much time on my hands nowadays. The lack of things to busy myself with was taking its toll and I found my bored mind drifting a lot. It was another one of those gloomy days and I knew without a doubt that it would rain.

"Talk a little, would you? You're so boring," Sakura grumbled and I ignored her, looking out of the window.

She began to mumble something incomprehensible and no doubt offensive before walking over to her writing desk and pulling out a pile of cream coloured papers. I had half a mind to snap something equally as rude back at her but, thanks to my enviable self control, I contained myself. She kept her back to me and I let my gaze flicker to her and her straight, business-like posture. I wrinkled my nose slightly at the sight of her annoying, bubble gum pink hair and continued to stare at her absentmindedly.

"Honestly, this room is so quiet. Can't you sing or something?" Sakura whined loudly and I turned back to the open window, having nothing to say to her.

Me? Sing? Ha, one such as I would never degrade myself to sing for a girl like _her_.

"Fine then, make me go and take out the radio," She continued her grumbling and stood up to approach the built in cupboard.

I stepped off of the windowsill, knowing that had she taken a couple of steps more I would have been dragged very disgracefully along the cold floor to follow her. The door of the cupboard rolled open and I waited patiently for her to take out the radio she had mentioned beforehand. After a lot of cursing and the occasional startling bang, she pulled out an old, beat up radio that looked like somebody had bashed it to bits and, after a few critical moments, eventually walked over to the writing table to put it down. I eyed her radio warily, doubtful of whether not this girl's music would make my ears bleed.

The radio crackled to life with an annoying buzzing noise and I fought the sudden impulse to cover my ears. As she turned down the volume knob gradually, a quiet guitar solo began and I found that the music had become slightly more bearable. A clear male's voice began to sing, **"Please come now, I think I'm falling I'm holding onto all I think is safe…"**

I turned my head to continue staring at the transparent raindrops, watching as one splattered helplessly against a large, green waxen leaf. This song was slightly familiar, it had been playing in a roadside restaurant somewhere along the way to the Hidden Village of Sand, but I hadn't really had time to pay attention to it. Now however, I had all the time in the world.

"**Seems I've found the road to nowhere and I'm trying to escape…"**

"_Sounds like Shisui's kind of song," _I thought absentmindedly and instantly, my mind began to drift back to old memories.

_**It was another S Class mission…which meant that there would soon be another pile of corpses. Only, this time it was only me and Shisui.**_

_**Shisui wasn't fit for ANBU, everyone knew that. He was the sort of person who couldn't kill anyone even though he was one of the best ninjas in our squad. He would never go for a fatal attack, he always went for an immobilizing attack. I don't think he ever realized the harmful potential that leaving his enemies alive would leave him.**_

_**The constant battle had me a little breathless and my opponents dead. Sweat trickled down my face and I blinked twice as it slithered into my exposed Sharingan eyes. My eye began to water and I knew that a stupid thing like that could cost me my life if someone decided to approach me from my left, temporarily blinded side. **_

"_**Hey, midget, hit the deck!" Shisui's loud voice called to me.**_

_**I instantly dropped down to the floor, hearing the telltale swish of kunai as they sailed over my head and into some unlucky guy's unprotected back. I rolled to my side just as a razor sharp katana pierced the loose dirt ground where my head would have been had I not moved. I kicked out with my feet and caught the person assaulting me in the chest. I pressed off of his chest with a powerful lunge which I landed with a couple of backflips to help me slow down. The man fell backwards and I raced towards him, stabbing him deftly in the chest with a kunai. His white cloth mask hid from me his final expression and for that I was grateful, staring into dead eyes unnerved me slightly. I heard Shisui yell out and spun around in his direction, my fingers whitening around the hilt of my black kunai. **_

_**A black clad ninja stood above him, a katana gripped in his hands tightly. He raised it to strike the final killing blow and I ran towards the person, pulling out my own katana as I went, and thrust the sword deep into the person's unsuspecting back. I made no move to remove my katana as the man gurgled loudly and vomited what must have been his own lifeblood. It was only when he stopped struggling against the katana that I pulled it out swiftly, ignoring the red sheen of blood staining its lethal surface like white on rice.**_

_**There was a long silence and I began to lower my guard ever so gradually, seeing as the person I had just killed was the last enemy. Shisui was silent and I looked at him when he made no move to stand up. **_

"_**Our mission is finished," I informed him calmly and turned to leave.**_

**_Just as I turned away, he spun me back around again with flared up angry Sharingan eyes. His large hands gripped my smaller shoulders tightly with a strength I marvelled at, I doubted he was even aware that he was causing me discomfort, and he looked the angriest I had ever seen him. Something in my throat clenched as he glared at me and I found myself unable to speak._**

"_**You had no right to kill those men!" Shisui yelled at me wildly and I stared back at him unflinchingly.**_

"_**They had no right to attack us," I retorted smoothly and he shook my forcefully by the shoulders, his blood red eyes narrowed.**_

"_**That's no excuse! We were ordered to steal the mission scroll and nothing else; there was no need to kill those men!" Shisui's usually calm, drawn out voice was laced with pure anger and I found myself fumbling for words as I stared into his piercing red eyes. His sudden outburst was stupid, couldn't he see that I had just saved him?**_

"_**They would keep coming after us and make our mission more difficult. If we just kill them they won't be able to follow us and we'll be able to return easily," I explained tonelessly and with my words, something inside Shisui seemed to snap.**_

**_There was a sudden and sharp pain in my taut cheek and when I instinctively raised a slender hand to it, I was shocked to find that my left cheekbone was broken. Something was trickling down my left cheek, something wet, and when I pulled my hand away I saw that it was covered in blood. His long nails had caught me across the cheek when he had hit me and as an icy wind blew about, my open cuts tingled painfully._**

"**_Shut up! Don't talk about them as if they're only hindrances! You just deprived two men of their lives, lives that could have been long and meaningful, just because they were in the way? You have no right to kill someone; you don't have the right to take a life!" Shisui yelled at me hysterically and I fell silent at his words, protesting inwardly at his words._**

_**I had just saved his life and he was yelling at me like some ungrateful wretch. We were ninja, we were trained to kill people. Shisui released me all of a sudden and he lowered his head, hiding behind his fringe of dark brown hair. He began to tremble and I waited for him to calm down before we left for Konoha.**_

"_**There was another way to stop them," He whispered quietly.**_

_**I made not a sound because I knew he was right. There were many other possibilities, I could have immobilized them, knocked them unconscious, put them under an illusion…but killing was the easiest and simplest. Shisui suddenly reached out for me and I waited for him to punch me again, closing my Sharingan eyes. **_

_**I had never been scared of anything in my life, but now…I wondered if what I was feeling could be classified as utmost terror. I could tell Shisui was incredibly disappointed with me and I had no idea what exactly I had done wrong, the people I had just killed were merely statistics in a book. I was a pair of razor sharp scissors cutting through light, transparent tracing paper; we were nothing more than tools. **_

_**However, I was filled with an overwhelming guilt as Shisui glared at me in disgust. I wanted desperately to be in his good books again, I had never wanted anything more than I had wanted this. Shisui…he was important, I needed him, he was the only thing I had ever needed other than Sasuke. If hitting me would help me get back in his good graces, then I would let him hit me as many times as he wanted. **_

_**Instead, he pulled me towards him and I opened my ruby red eyes quickly, tensing up. Shisui was still trembling and had me locked in a tight embrace. My head barely came up to his shoulders and I had my wounded left cheek pressed against his broad chest. I ignored the pain that my shifting cheekbone brought and was filled with an overwhelming relief as I realized that Shisui was no longer angry with me.**_

_**I knew Shisui was suffering, so I made no move to draw away. It was the only comfort I could give him.**_

"_**Itachi…Itachi, you're just a child…"**_

My knuckles were white, my hands clenched in the fabric of my black pants. I shut the open window, having had enough of the drizzling rainfall, and looked at Sakura and the radio I was barely aware was still playing in the background. The song from before had changed and I grasped the beaded necklace around my neck, running a finger methodically over each and everyone of the beads.

"_If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world? Forget what we're told before we get too old; show me a garden that's bursting into life," _A soft male voice sang and I instantly blocked him out of my hearing, not at all interested in a love song.

Obviously, Sakura wasn't too happy with the song either and she hit the power button on the old black radio. The music stopped instantly and the both of us were cast into still silence, having nothing to say to each other. She sighed and slid off of her chair to crawl underneath the writing desk. I began to stare at her, wondering what on earth she was doing underneath the wooden table. There was a loud bang and a string of curses as she hit her head on the underside of the table. I turned my head away from her; I had expected something like that to happen. I stared at my hands and realized that my red, crimson Akatsuki ring was missing. It seemed as if all traces of my membership had been erased from the face of the earth.

I was dimly aware of a loud click but made no move to investigate the cause. I presumed it was probably Sakura clicking her annoying flowery blue ballpoint pen, she did tend to that when she got frustrated. She was an easy person to read. A piano began to play quietly in the background and I looked back at her, realizing that she must have turned the radio back on. I let my gaze linger upon her tired figure a bit longer than I should have and turned away from her. I could feel my Mangekyou Sharingan sapping up whatever chakra I had left and found that I was feeling more and more tired with each passing day. I listened to the music playing in the background and began to relax.

I closed my tired eyes briefly, listening not only to the skilled piano player but to the sound of Sakura's steady breathing and the sounds the pen she wrote with made as she angrily scratched out various words and rewrote them again tirelessly. I was listening to everything and nothing in particular, it helped me to clear my mind of whatever I found annoying. A soft, clear voice began to sing after a while and I sunk into the wall, leaning my head against it. I bent my left knee and pulled open the window again, hearing the sound of rain beginning to fall.

"_**How high would I have to fly…until I can't see you again?"**_

I began to stare absentmindedly at the pink haired kunoichi, watching as she straightened up all of a sudden and then slumped over again dejectedly, letting out a quiet exasperated sigh.

The silence between the both of us was…comfortable.

Neither of us felt the burning need to speak to each other or lash out at each other as we normally did. We had come to a silent, unspoken understanding that only we would be able to comprehend; it was like a forbidden secret.

"_**If I turn my eyes away, I might feel better…but I always want to be looking at you from somewhere."**_

Sakura glanced at me over her petite shoulder and she seemed surprised when she found I was looking at her. I stared back at her unashamedly, nothing could embarrass me, and we continued to stare at each other. It wasn't a pulse pounding competition of who would turn away first, it was just a meaningless look that lasted a bit longer than it should have. Her pink lips curved into a quiet smile and her entire face seemed to become an important part of that simple smile. Her jade green eyes softened from their troubled state, her delicate features smoothened out and her flawless skin seemed to gleam ethereally in the dim morning light. She seemed so…happy.

She turned away finally but I continued staring at her.

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

I could hear Sakura's radio playing faintly in the background and lay down on my soft futon, listening to the lyrics half interestedly. I yawned widely and made no move to cover my mouth, staring up at the whitish ceiling. Humidity was beginning to stain it yellow and my cerulean blue eyes followed the outline of the accidental pattern.

"Hey, fish face?" I called the hot headed blue skinned man who looked at me from where he sat beside the breaking writing desk.

The plastic black folding chair he sat on had been nicked from the meeting room, I had no idea who by so I- hey, stop looking at me like that, I didn't steal it! I just…borrowed it for an extended period of time. Anyways, the stolen – I mean - _borrowed_ chair he sat on squeaked loudly in protest as he leaned forwards to look at me with a somewhat curious expression.

His chair squeaked again as he leaned back languorously in it. "Yeah, blondie?"

I shifted slightly on my futon and rolled onto my side so that I was facing him, "You don't seem to be trying very hard to escape. We're all prepared here for Akatsuki to come run in and bust you out but it doesn't look like they're coming…"

Kisame looked at me sceptically and asked, "I thought I told you that Akatsuki doesn't care about their members?"

I scowled at him and snapped, "I know that! But…isn't it a bit weird that nobody at all has come for you?"

"Someone did come, but Deidara wouldn't care if I keeled over and died right in front of him. He'd probably laugh at me for having died so stupidly," Kisame mused to himself aloud and my cerulean eyes widened at the mention of this 'Deidara' person.

"Somebody came?!" I yelled at him in surprise and Kisame shrugged indifferently.

"Yeah. Anyways...I know I'm going to die sooner or later. Why not die now rather than later on?" Kisame pointed out.

"You…You can't say that! Of course it's worth living! Your life can't be _that _bad! It's got to get better sometime," I protested and Kisame laughed at me, staring up at the ceiling.

"It's weird how optimistic you are, blondie. It's even weirder how much you care," He murmured quietly, a melancholy look in his onyx eyes.

He then smirked and began to pick a fight with me, "Then again, you are a weirdo."

"Shut up, I'm not the one with blue skin!" I retorted smartly and Kisame scoffed.

"I'd rather have blue skin than your nasty hair," He growled back angrily.

The both of us glared at each other, you could almost smell the hate waves between the two of us. We were hyped up and ready to go but the both of us had reached an unspoken understanding.

We were friends.

_**Haruno Sakura**_

My black, plastic ballpoint pen scratched away noisily as I tried to write each and every individual character so that they were at least _legible_. I growled inwardly as I messed up the simple character for mouth and grabbed at my throbbing head. I losing it, and losing it fast, if I couldn't even draw a stupid box. The music had long since ended and had left Itachi and me in a quiet but comfortable silence. I resisted the urge to glance quickly at the aforementioned Sharingan Master and instead rested my pale cheek against the cool rosewood of the writing desk, closing my jaded eyes.

I was barely aware of a quiet rustle of cloth and the muffled footsteps that followed it, too tired to care. I wasn't even aware of the table top sinking slightly as extra weight was added to it and it was only when something soft and cloth like swept across my face for a fleeting moment that I shot up rigidly. Something cool touched the back of my slim neck and I looked up at who was touching me, in other words, the silent Sharingan master. I calmed down instantly and he removed his slender fingers from my smooth skin, his dark red eyes fixed on the nearly illegible report I had been working on for the past few months. He raised an elegant black eyebrow at the messy handwriting and I could tell he wasn't impressed at all with the work.

I was surprised with his sudden forwardness; but I supposed the music had made us both a little more open, a little more sentimental. We had both lowered our guard for a few hours and had an onlooker seen the two of us they would have imagined us a couple of friends or perhaps something more. I wished for a moment that the two of us were always like this but quickly dismissed the idea; it had been a stupid thought.

He picked up the black biro pen that I had put down a few moments before and he arranged his pale fingers around the pen delicately if not absentmindedly. He pulled out a clean sheet of paper that wasn't too badly creased from the bottom of the pile and began to write. I stared up at him in surprise, he had never shown much interest in my written work before, but allowed him to do what he wished seeing as he wasn't doing much harm by writing on a clean piece of paper. A long, straight lock of his midnight hair fell into his beautiful, porcelain face and his facial expression changed slightly, a quick tightening of his masculine lips. The two, long diagonal scars that traced a painful path down his taut cheeks strained slightly with the movement and I wondered for a brief moment how he had managed to get them.

A loud chink of hard plastic on wood brought me back to my senses and Itachi turned away from me, returning to his post on the wide windowsill like some faithful soldier. I contradicted myself there, _faithful_ definitely wasn't the right word since he couldn't prove himself a loyal ninja. He had a strange attachment to that windowsill; he never left it for long. I glanced at the white, slightly crumpled paper he had been writing on a couple of seconds past and pulled it closer to me so that I could read what he had written on it. I wasn't surprised to find his writing elegant and each stroke carefully written; it was like looking at a piece of priceless art that he could recreate again and again effortlessly. I didn't really focus on what he had written until I realized that I wasn't even reading the characters and my jade green eyes narrowed at what he had written.

_Your writing is disgusting. I'm not surprised though, since it is your work._

I resisted the urge to growl loudly at Itachi and instead ripped up the paper he had written on angrily before crushing it into a ball that looked more like a pancake. I stood up suddenly in my makeshift chair and threw it at him as hard as I could, my stressed eyes narrowed and burning with the fury of a thousand hells.

"You're such a jerk!" I screamed at him and he caught the ball of paper effortlessly.

I sat down on my plastic folding chair in a huff, gripping the black pen tightly imagining it was Itachi's neck. I began to write again but then something unexpectedly struck the back of my head quite hard and a ball of paper rolled harmlessly along the messy tabletop.

I grabbed another sheet of paper, a page of the report I had just been writing and smashed it into a ball, turning around to throw it at the prepared missing-nin. He ducked and the paper missile went sailing out of the window and into the dense forestry below. He looked out of the open window and watched it fall, an unreadable expression on his face and he glanced at me blankly.

"You're going to have to rewrite that," He stated flatly and my face fell.

I screamed in frustration and had half a mind to jump out of the window and get the stupid piece of paper. I glared at Itachi and his usually impassive red eyes glittered at me in amusement.

* * *

A/N:

Hey! Sorry about all of these late updates but this is a big important message so I would greatly appreciate it if you read this. I will not be here in both the end of December until early February. Christmas holidays are acomin' you know? But in any case, my long absence has an explanation.

I'M IN A SHOW! hoohoohoo! I'm gonna be in the Philippines for a show! So if you wanna see me, go watch Peter Pan in the Cultural Centre and try and guess who's me. (lmao, I'm under fourteen so I'm a Lost Girl) Try and guess who I am. I'm not Wendy though (grr, I'm too voluptuous) someone else got Wendy.

OH MY GOD BUT PETER PAN he's so hot. He's got abs man. DUDE but I'm not really friends with him...that is my new goal. Become friends with Mike. Or something like that.

Oh but you know what? I can speak tagalog.

Pangalan ay Selandora. Ikao talagang maganda.

HOOOHOOO.

**Selandora (the undeniably sexy one you must fear)**


	7. The End of Peace

**Chapter 7: Ambush of Sorrows**

_**Shikamaru**_

A shrill note pierced the air, a note so high that it was impossible for any human to reach, and on instinct I clapped my hands over my ears in an attempt to drown out the sound. I stumbled out of my quarters dazedly, the sound had left me disoriented and all my usually sharp senses were in a shambles. The loud, screeching noise continued and I was beginning to feel light headed from the intensity of it; if it continued any longer I was sure my ears would bleed. I braced myself for the sound that would follow as soon as I removed my calloused hands from my ears, groaning loudly as the full volume of the sound hit me all at once, and ripped my ANBU sleeve into shreds. I shoved the stringy pieces of cloth into my ears, I could still hear the sound but it wasn't quite as jarring as it had been and it would have to do.

There was only one explanation for the sound.

Ninjas from Sound Village had to be here.

I raced across the creaky wooden bridges, the usual squeak and protest of the straining wood went unheard as the piercing shriek drowned it out, immediately running for Ino's room. If that blonde haired loudmouth had gotten herself killed…

Something lurched inside of me when her quarters came into view and a wide, glaring rip stared at me through her rice paper thin shojo screens. I could have sworn for a couple of moments my erratic heartbeat was louder than the shrill sound, the blood pounded like a death knoll in my ears and I eventually composed myself to the best of my ability. I removed the navy Konoha headband from around my left arm and angled it so that I could see the inside of the room through the reflective surface of the hitai-ate.

I could see four people dressed in the baggy grey uniform that all sound ninja wore and grumbled inwardly when I couldn't make out parts of the room because of the state of the metal plate. It was covered in scratches and fingerprints; obstructing my view of the room. I had always found it troublesome to clean it; I could be spending the two minutes I was using up on polishing the metal plate on something more useful. I was dearly paying for my actions now though.

I jerked as the shrill note from before reached an even higher pitch and the headband in my hand glinted as it accidentally caught the rays of light streaming through the troublesome treetops. I instantly realized my mistake and darted away from the doorway as a firey red explosion threw me some ten feet away like an anguished lover and I landed on my stomach. The unexpected and harsh throw winded me; I rolled onto my side as I struggled to catch my breath and narrowly avoided the long, jagged blade of a crudely made katana as it crunched into the wood beside me.

I cursed inwardly when I realized that the trees surrounding the ANBU camp didn't do much for the shadows I desperately needed to perform my jutsus. I wouldn't be able to use any of my shadow techniques if I had only a small amount of light…

I pressed my palms into the floor behind my head and pushed with as much power as I could muster so that I had enough momentum to propel myself into a well timed handspring. I latched myself to the bridge with chakra to balance myself as the whole wooden structure began to shake violently; I could see a couple of sound ninja falling over the side of the shaky pathways. Taking advantage of the moment of confusion, I raced towards a momentarily disoriented sound ninja and stabbed him in the chest with a black, if not sharp, kunai.

"Shinranshin No Jutsu!" A familiar, loud voice yelled out and I ducked just on time as a heavy and rather large man went zooming overhead to plunge the jagged katana from before into one of his team mates who died upon impact; a shocked look plastered onto his face.

I turned around for a brief moment and felt a wave of relief surge through me as I caught sight of Ino's confident, battle ready figure came into view. She winked at me reassuringly and I resisted the urge to smirk back lazily at her, settling for a half hearted sigh through half lidded eyes, taking on the appearance of a truly indifferent person. She then spun around, her long blonde ponytail followed suit like a lethal, yellow whip.

Crouching into a more balanced and lower battle stance, I began to focus on the battle at hand. The ninja we were fighting were clearly at least chuunin level and I suspected that the leader of their squadron would be the equivalent of an ANBU member. I hadn't seen enough of the enemy to get a good enough of idea of how many there were, but I had a gut feeling we were outnumbered. I began to work out our chances of winning this battle as I fought almost half heartedly, dodging every move with the appearance of a bored person. It was a technique I found managed to ignite anger in even the calmest and composed person.

The ninja fighting me raised their arms into an X shaped form to block one of my kunai and I stabbed them in their unprotected stomach quickly before ripping savagely upwards. A warm splatter of blood spurted from the wound I had just inflicted and I grimaced slightly as some of it trickled down and into the corner of my mouth.

"Shikamaru!" Ino's voice drew my attention and I grunted as a ninja with two blades protruding from their fore-arms made an attempt to slice my head off neatly. I was pushed backwards until my back was pressed almost painfully into the unreliable wooden railing.

I could hear the banister begin to crack and splinter under my weight and the ninja struggled to press his two killing blades close enough to my neck to slit it at least, but I pressed against them with my own kunai. I decided that it was about time I got a longer weapon (honestly; Sakura had her scalpel, Neji had his katana, Tenten had God knows what but she had it and Temari had a one metre long fan) since kunai were really just beginning to get far too small for my liking.

My blood ran cold as Ino did the stupidest thing she ever had done. "Shintenshin no Jutsu!"

"Ino, no!" I yelled at her and all of a sudden there was a dull thump as Ino's well filled out body hit the floor ungracefully, like a puppet without its puppeteer. The dull green eyes of the ninja before me glazed over suddenly and he, too, collapsed to the floor as Ino's body had done two seconds prior.

The ninja, or rather _Ino_, straightened up and flashed me a bright smile that wasn't really becoming, seeing as the ninja's teeth were blackened beyond belief. I raced towards Ino's lifeless body and began to mumble a string of curses. A thin sweat of trepidation broke out across my body as an oncoming ninja approached Ino's body in its currently incapacitated state and in a moment of thoughtlessness I threw five kunai at the ninja in my blind urgency. I was losing my head and all five of the kunai missed. I moulded whatever chakra I had to my feet but stumbled over carelessly from the unexpected speed. I looked up and it felt as if a heavy boulder of dread had rolled over me again and again and again.

"Ino, get back into your body!" I all but yelled at her and she formed the hand signals to change back.

The seconds that ticked by seemed like drawn out years to me and all the sounds around me died out until the only sound I could hear was that of the blood pounding in my ears. My breath caught in my throat. A sword glinted as it plunged towards Ino's body. I could almost see Ino's spirit flying back towards her body in a race against time.

There was a loud and sickening crunch and a loud, piercing scream that brought me to my senses. I had been running for Ino's life to get to her and her pained scream gave me an extra boost of energy. I smashed into the ninja attacking her and he took a few steps backwards to stable himself. He flew over the side of the railing as I landed a powerful kick to his chest and I was barely aware that he was the last ninja; the ninja Ino had earlier on occupied was currently unconscious from the mental strain the mind transfer technique put on him.

Ino was writhing on the floor beside me and clutching at a half a metre long katana that was embedded in her right shoulder, near her collarbone. I reached out to touch her but she merely slapped me away before screaming in pain and the rancid smell of burning skin wafted up towards me. I fought the urge to vomit over the side of the damaged railings and dry heaved once before composing myself. The skin around her wound was begin to hiss and I realized that I had to get the sword out of her to prevent whatever damn poison there was in that piece of metal shit.

I eventually had to straddle her to keep her from moving and she seemed barely aware of the position we were in; she was sweating and screaming from the intense pain the poison obviously brought. Each scream she screamed felt like a bullet to my heart, she had never sounded so pained before and I felt like I was the one who should take the blame…if only I had gotten to her faster…

"Ino, this'll hurt," I warned her and I became aware that my words were barely registering in her crazed mind. I needed to find a way to shut her up though, she would draw the attention of more ninja…

My calloused hands closed around the leather wrapped hilt of the poisoned katana and I pressed my lips against hers roughly to stifle the sound of her screams. She bit down ferociously on my lip and I could taste the metallic tang of blood in my mouth as she began to draw blood. My stomach lurched, but not with disgust this time, and I fought to keep my emotions under control as I yanked the sword out of her chest suddenly. The pain in my lower lip became unbearable and I threw the sword to the side of me, hearing it skid across the wooden surface of the bridge before falling down into the dense forestry below.

Ino wasn't unclamping my lip and I was definitely sure she was going to rip off at least half a centimetre worth of me. I manoeuvred my tongue in between her teeth somehow and forced it into her mouth to relinquish her hold on my lip, establishing who obviously was in power here. She began to challenge my authority, her own tongue thrusting against mine and I wondered if she was aware of what she was doing at all or if it was just the poison making her woozy headed.

Somewhere in the depths of my mind, my conscience was jumping up and down screaming excitedly, '_You're kissing the girl of your dreams man!'_

All in all though?

The kiss was definitely screwed up.

But it was nice.

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

I had been arguing about something with Kisame only a few minutes beforehand. It did come as a big shock when a bright red and orange explosion blossomed from somewhere beyond the wall of my quarters and engulfed the back wall of my room. Kisame was thrown forwards from the force of the explosion and he was flung into the wall beside me like a rag doll. He let out a low groan and pushed himself off of the wall, a trail of black blood trickled down from a corner of his mouth and he spat the excess blood onto the floor.

"Damn it," He cursed loudly, wiping his blue mouth with a sleeve of his voluminous Akatsuki cloak.

A loud cracking noise drew my attention as I looked up at the ceiling of my half destroyed room. I grabbed the dark green bag Sakura had left for me a month ago; if I lost it I would be killed by a drunken Hokage and a hot headed pink ninja. The weapons inside clanked and Kisame looked in surprise at it; he hadn't really taken notice of the bag before I had picked it up.

The ceiling suddenly caved in on us and I dove for the rice paper screen door, dimly aware of Kisame lagging behind me. I pulled open the top of the duffel bag, digging inside for some kind of weapon that I would be able to use. I yanked out a small box of needles and opened it hurriedly, sliding as many as I could into various pouches strapped to my legs and upper arms. A sudden, blinding pain raced up my right leg and I began to feel dizzy all of a sudden, something wet and sticky began to trickle down my leg and caused my black pants to stick to me like a second skin.

I looked back at Kisame and was shocked to find that he had one leg trapped in the debris of my quarters. One of the wooden supports had fallen down on his leg and he was struggling to push it off of him, an impossible feat now that he was clearly suffering from severe chakra depletion thanks to the restrainer necklace. I raced over to him and he barely took any notice of me as he pushed against the huge slab of wood.

I snaked my fingers over the edge of the wood and pulled against it, my strong muscles straining with the effort it took to move it and Kisame gave a strangled gasp of relief as he pulled his damaged leg out from underneath the slightly raised chunk of wood. I knelt to the floor and put one of his arms around my shoulders, my cerulean eyes darting about the area to scan for enemies that just _had _to be there.

"Don't touch me, you stupid blonde," Kisame growled at me half-heartedly and I ignored his protests. He was heavy and I doubted that I could carry him very far; seeing as the both of us weren't exactly in perfect shape.

I pulled him along and he stumbled with me, both of our injured legs straining to support our body weight. All of a sudden, a sharp spasm of blinding pain raced up my leg and I leaned against him; my breath coming in laboured short spurts. Kisame took a few steps until he reached the railing to steady himself.

"Hey, dumbass, don't step on your right leg," He snapped at me irritably.

"Shut up! We're like this because you were the one stupid enough to get your leg crushed!" I retorted angrily and he eventually gave an annoyed huff.

I closed my tired eyes and pushed off of Kisame, hopping as fast as I could across the bridge on my left leg. Kisame lingered behind me but I knew he would follow; he had to because of the necklace anyways. I was thinking about how much my leg hurt and how pissed off Sakura would be when-

Sakura!

I took a shocked step with my right leg and fell to the floor from the unexpected strain my weight put on it. I was just about to push myself when someone grabbed me and I was thrown over a bony and hard shoulder disgracefully, like a sack of potatoes. On instinct, I began to beat against the person's back and suddenly my back began to throb horribly, causing me to stop.

"Put me down, you stupid fish face!" I yelled at Kisame and he ignored me.

"Shut up, if you keep falling over like that you're going to get us both killed. Unless you remove the necklace from my neck you won't have that cut on your leg and then you'd be able to fight," Kisame explained hurriedly and he suddenly ducked as a kunai sheared off the very tip of my golden hair.

All of a sudden, three or four sound ninja came into view as they seemed to materialize out of thin air and I sucked in a deep breath to try and calm myself down. I heard Kisame growl deep in his throat in obvious annoyance, spinning around to face our enemies.

Our enemies?

Wait…they were _our_ enemies weren't they? For once we were on the same side and we had to defeat these guys _together_.

"Naruto, take the goddamned necklace off of my neck. You'll be able to fight properly and I can fight with this leg," He hissed at me and I froze in sudden doubt.

If I removed the necklace…we would stand a better chance of staying alive. But then, if I did remove it he might kill me or escape…

I could see the silver chain of the necklace from where I hung and it twinkled at me seductively, begging me to remove it. Kisame darted to the side and three shuriken flew past me, barely missing my slightly freckled nose.

"You stupid blonde, just fucking take it off!" Kisame all but screamed at me and in a moment of thoughtlessness, something inside of me snapped and I yanked it off brutally from around his neck. It fell to the floor and clinked against the tough wood with a dead sound, a sound that seemed so final and dooming in the noisy background.

Kisame suddenly dropped me to the floor and I barely had time to stop and realize how much my side hurt. I rolled to the side to dodge a deadly onslaught of senbon needles and razor sharp kunai and they clattered against the wood before skidding off the side of the high bridge. Kisame managed to snatch a few of them before they fell, throwing them right back at their owners. He kept one in his hand and used it to block a tirade of thrown projectiles. I stood up and found that my wound in my leg had disappeared instantaneously as soon as the necklace had left Kisame's thick, scaly neck.

I jumped up and touched my toes in a suspended split to avoid a sound ninja as they skidded towards me before landing on the floor some few feet away with one hand supporting my weight. I spun on my large hand, my legs spinning like the blades of a helicopter before pushing off the hard surface to land heavily on the wooden railing. I pulled out four of the senbon needles and threw them at two of the ninja. I cursed when only two of them made their mark in a shoulder and a knee; I honestly had to work on my aim.

I jumped away from my position on the railing just in time as it exploded behind me and moulded chakra to my feet so that I stuck to the sloping ceiling of one of the empty ninja quarters. I slipped on an uneven tile that smashed against the bridge and went sliding down the side of the roof, my fingers struggling to find a grip _somewhere_ but to no avail. I moulded as much chakra as I could to my fingers and closed my eyes, bracing myself for the two hundred foot fall to the forest floor.

No more ramen…no more Ichiraku…no more discounts…no more Hinata…

What? No more Hinata?

A black kunai thudded into the wall beside me and I heard Kisame yell at me, "Naruto, it's a handhold!"

I grabbed onto the kunai just in time, had I been a second or so later I would have missed it and I pulled myself up back onto the roof. I took more care with my stepping this time as I ran back to the bridge and jumped onto an unsuspecting sound nin. He went down with my unexpected weight as I forced him down; I heard something crack underneath my feet and winced as I realized that I must have broken a few bones.

I didn't have much time to think about it as another sound nin engaged me in battle and something hard and tall pressed against my back. I heard rough, laboured breathing and my rough hands clamped tightly around the pair of kunai in my hands as I began to settle into battle mode.

I could imagine Kisame's smirk, "So, blondie, let's see what you can really do."

His challenging words made me smile despite our situation and I told him overconfidently, "I'm sure it's much better than what you can do."

I released the malevolent power of the kyuubi, keeping it perfectly in check and felt him stiffen up behind me in shock. The ninja who had been about to attack us froze in their tracks; paralyzed by my excessive chakra store. Finally, Kisame let out a low chuckle and broke the still, anxious tension in the air.

Suddenly, an equally strong chakra filled the air and I almost stumbled with it's intensity. It was as if an invisible hand had snaked its way up my neck and was threatening to choke me, I began to feel slightly light headed.

"Not bad," I observed in a half lie and Kisame snorted at me.

"Shut up, it's as good as yours. Do you know where my Samehada is?" He asked me.

"What the fuck's a Samehada?" I yelled at him and cursed loudly as a loud, piercing note cut through the chilly morning air like a guillotine.

The people around me were unaffected (surprisingly) and I plugged my fingers into my ears on reflex, trying to block out the deafening sound. I could see Kisame yelling something at me but I couldn't hear his voice; everything around me was too loud. He suddenly pulled me over the edge of the bridge railing and we were falling, falling to our deaths in a damn deserted forest and I was so sure nobody was ever going to find our bodies so I'd never become Hokage or get on the hero's plate and-

His large hands suddenly grabbed me by the face and I winced at the sand papery sensation of his bluish abrasive skin. My cerulean eyes darted about wildly as the earth rushed up to meet us in a blur of green and brown, I didn't notice the foreign chakra creeping about my body and blocking my ears. It was only when we ground to a sudden halt I realized that the sounds around me were suddenly gone; I could only hear the sound of my own violently thudding heartbeat.

Kisame was mouthing to me frantically and I looked at him with a shaken expression, not exactly up to guessing games at the moment. It was only when he began to repeat the same sentence in an increasingly urgent manner his words began to register in my mind.

"_Where's my sword?"_

I yelled back at him, unable to determine how loud my voice needed to be for him to hear me, "Your sword's in Hinata's room."

Kisame nodded and his strong, cloaked arm shot out to grab onto a sturdy tree branch before he swung the both of us up on to it. He had already begun climbing the trees back up, obviously intended for Hinata's room. I followed after him quickly for his own safety; he'd need back up eventually.

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

The entire wooden structure began to shake violently and a loud, shrill note reached my ears. I lifted my hands unhurriedly and pressed down on my ears, effectively muffling the shrieking sound. I could still hear it in the background, like tinkly lift music that made you want to smash the speakers to bits, and Sakura walked over to me quickly. She grabbed my wrists and I offered no resistance; she couldn't kill me while she we both had the restrainer around our necks. She lowered them quickly and the shrieking sound, very much like the sound of nails clawing down a blackboard, threatened to deafen me. She pressed her hands to my ears and closed her jade eyes in concentration. The sounds around me began to blur into one another, becoming fainter and fainter until eventually the sounds around me were nothing more than mere whispers. It was an annoying sensation and I felt that I would be much better off without the mute, my ears could withstand the sound. There was no way I could dispel it though, only Sakura would be able to.

The aforementioned loud mouthed kunoichi was hurrying to pull on some clothing fit for battle and I made no move to look away; she had grown used to my shameless staring. She _had _tried to get me to stop looking at her but no one, especially a weak Konoha ninja, would tell me what to do. She kept her back turned away from me, she was quite a self conscious person, and watched as she pulled a tight black shirt over her head. She slipped on her white ANBU bone armour on top and it clicked with a satisfying sound as she secured it in place.

The both of us were aware that there must have been some form of fighting going on, however I had no idea who it was attacking Konoha. I had never heard of ninja who fought with music but dimly remembered that the idiot snake man, Orochimaru had set up a village. He had never attacked Akatsuki out of fear for his own life but I supposed that he had set his sights upon Konoha. I remembered Kisame telling me once that my younger brother had become one of Orochimaru's subordinates but didn't know much beyond that. Had Orochimaru come for my brother…?

Sakura approached me and leaned at my side, bringing her face right up to my ear. I stiffened at the close proximity and my blood red eyes narrowed at her, she had no right to come _that_ close to someone of my status. I could see her sigh in the way her chest rose and fell quickly in annoyance and she spoke to me, "Can you please come with me? I need to get out and fight."

"No," I told her flatly and her face fell at my blunt and apparently unreasonable answer.

"But- I have to go and help my friends! They need help, they might die!" She snapped at me and I stared out of the window with an indifferent expression on my face.

"It is no concern of mine whether or not your team mates die," I explained to her coldly and her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She obviously wanted to protest but could come up with no reasonable argument.

"I have to help them," she repeated helplessly and I ignored her futile pleading, it wasn't as if she'd get whatever she wanted from me. A few injured ANBU ninja would most certainly be beneficial to my cause.

Not only that though…my mind was whirring with the possibility of an escape. As my thoughts began to merge together and become a huge part of an escape plan, I leaned back against the wall of my windowsill and stared Sakura right in her jade eyes.

"If you want to help your friends so badly then just remove the restrainer. It's the only way you'll be able to get to help them," I told her quietly, turning my head towards the window again.

I had found Sakura's weakness and was more than ready to exploit it. It seemed as if she would do anything for her friends. I could already sense Kisame's unleashed chakra, along with a malevolent chakra I imagined could only be that of the Kyuubi's. My mind jolted when I realized that if Kisame already had unleashed his chakra then that meant that the Kyuubi boy must have removed his restrainer. If Kisame took time to analyze his situation he should kidnap the boy and bring him back to the Akatsuki hideout…

Sakura froze and hesitated, a strange look on her face and she made a quick and sudden move to remove the annoying Konoha pendant around my neck. She touched the silver chain of the necklace, my porcelain skin tingled with the icy cold of her fingers, and she looked at the necklace with an indecisive expression in her eyes.

"Take it off, Sakura," I whispered to her, knowing that she needed just a small push. She lowered her head, a curtain of pink hair falling over her green eyes and she fell very silent.

Her shoulders began to shake quietly and for a moment, I thought she was crying. I remained quiet, allowing her time to herself, knowing that she would remove the necklace from my neck. She wasn't too bright; she would never be able to read deeper into my actions. Her hands clenched around the necklace and I waited; she would pull it off any second now.

Then she laughed, a bitter, resentful laugh.

"The moment I take the restrainer off of you, you're going to kill me," She murmured, almost sadly.

She raised her head to look at me, a strange light in her vibrant green eyes. I could see my own face reflected in the glassy, empty surface of her eyes. I hadn't the least intention of confirming her statement, she probably already knew the answer anyways.

"You would like that, wouldn't you?" She asked me. "To kill me, that is."

"I do not see what relevance this has to what I told you to do," I replied coolly, avoiding her question.

"Wouldn't you?" She pressed me further.

I didn't realize that we were so close until my chest brushed hers slightly. I had taken a few thoughtless steps forwards and stared down at her, using my slight height advantage to intimidate her. All flashes of the fear she had once held for me had disappeared and I found that very strange, when had she stopped being so scared of me? It didn't matter though, what mattered now was trying to come up with a plan B to escape from here. She held my eyes and I found myself powerless to look away, the sensation angered me slightly. I was always the one in control, I always had the upper hand; how could a worthless kunoichi like her have done this to me? The unspoken spell was broken however, when she closed her eyes and let out another empty, quiet laugh that sounded so…so dead in my ears. Her fingers clenched around the silver chain of the necklace and she opened her eyes again, a determined and bright light in her eyes.

"_You are an idiot, Sakura," _I thought to myself, absentmindedly.

I was a little bit disturbed by the fleeting thought. Something nagged at me in the back of my mind that it would be difficult for me to kill Sakura, but I dismissed the silly notion immediately. The mere _suggestion_ that I had grown fond of the pink haired girl repulsed me but I couldn't help but feel as if the repulsion was…fake somehow. A sudden explosion caused the entire structure to shake violently and Sakura fell forwards, her slender hand lost its grip on the necklace to grip at my shoulders for support. On instinct, my calloused hands reached out to steady her and they tightened around her waist to keep her still. The both of us ended up much closer than we had ever anticipated and I removed my hands from her waist quickly, trying to forget I had done such a thing. I took a step away from her and her hands fell away from my shoulders.

"Sakura!" A masculine voice yelled out her name and her head snapped towards the rice paper door.

"Sasuke!" She screamed my younger brother's name, running towards the door, straining against the necklace's magnetism as it tried to bring her back towards me. Her jade green eyes were wide and terrified, not for herself, but for my younger brother. I leaned back slightly to give myself better grounding so that I wasn't dragged along disgracefully behind her. I could see her moulding chakra to her feet at a furious pace; she was desperate to get out and I was forced to take another reluctant step forwards to steady myself. A barely noticeable silhouette appeared on the rice paper and Sakura took no notice of it whatsoever.

That stupid idiot! If she got herself killed, I would die too!

I raced towards her, grabbing her around the middle and tackled her to the ground as a sound ninja came ripping through the rice paper screen. The ninja glanced around the room a few times, looking for us, and he froze and fell forwards onto his chest. I counted a grand total of five kunai and eight senbon needles imbedded into his back; someone had obviously been desperate to kill the ninja. A dark blue clad man raced into the room, barely noticing the dead man on the floor, his single blue eye and bright red Sharingan eye darting around the room. I stood up and stepped away from Sakura, staring coolly at the familiar man. Sakura lay motionless on the floor, shaken from the tackle and I could see her trying to catch her breath. Sasuke, of course, being Sasuke, immediately jumped to conclusions and grabbed me by the collar of my mesh shirt, a nasty and twisted snarl on his face.

"What the hell did you do to Sakura?" He hissed at me and I raised my hands slowly to remove his own. He hissed and spat at me, throwing me against the back wall. There was a sudden crack as I hit the wall wrist first and an inexplicable pain raced up my arm. I ignored it, allowing the angry and wild expression on my brother's face submerge me and for a quick moment, a shiver of exhilaration raced up my spine as his blatant hatred made me…made me…

Sakura let out a short cry of pain from her position on the floor before stifling it, clutching at her now equally as broken wrist. Sasuke, however, was too consumed by his own rage to even notice her scream. I guessed that Sasuke was merely using Sakura's injury as an excuse, any excuse, to kill me. He obviously didn't know about the restrainer necklace; I didn't think he would have been so reckless otherwise. I darted to the other side of the room as an onslaught of razor sharp kunai was thrown at me by none other than my younger brother. Ducking as a whirring shuriken whizzed overhead, it tore into the rice paper window sliding window cover and left a gaping hole before returning to Sasuke's waiting hand.

I spotted one too many openings and realized in utter disgust that _this _was the standard of Konoha ANBU. I could have knocked him flat in two seconds and killed him in the next. He raced towards me, a bloodthirsty look in his mismatched eyes, and I blocked his quick punches. The wooden chair at the writing table caught my eye and I leaped onto it quickly, standing on the top of its backrest, spinning it around to block a couple of Sasuke's kicks before landing on the floor. He tried to punch me but I used the chair as a shield, the wood splintered and cracked as his hand shot through with a sickening crunch. He pulled his fist out, ignoring the new blood on his hands, and kicked the chair away; it really was nothing more than a hindrance.

I could see Sakura stirring slightly out of the corner of my eye and she began to get up ever so slowly. My mind was tired from the lack of chakra and I wasn't thinking right, the small distraction caused by Sakura was all Sasuke needed to kick me to the windowsill. I managed a quick spontaneous pencil turn in mid air to slow me down and landed expertly on my unbroken wrist. I stood up quickly but Sasuke was merciless, he was in front of me already. I took a step onto the windowsill as he swung at me with a fist and ducked as he punched again, tearing through the rice paper screen. I took another step backwards and my hands began to sweat instantly as my foot slipped slightly, I hung onto what remained of the window to keep my balance.

I didn't so much as move as Sasuke's hand rested upon my chest, ready to push me out of the window. Our eyes never left each other's, his red and blue and my dark, bloodied red ones; there were no words between us.

"Sasuke, please don't!" Sakura suddenly screamed and he suddenly jerked, that small movement was all it took for him to push me out of the window. I fell backwards, falling…

I could feel a swish of a hand as someone missed my shirt.

My dark red eyes stared into those of my onyx eyed brother's and for a moment, I saw something shine deep within their depths, something frenzied and fleeting. I stared at his outstretched hand and was slightly surprised by it. I doubted I would die after falling out of the window, the branches I had counted for hours on end would slow down my fall. The only thing that would affect me was the obvious blow at my pride…being pushed out of a window didn't actually raise anyone's opinion of you. It seemed as if these Konoha ninja were all trying to humiliate me before I died.

"_Well Shisui, what do you think of Konoha now?" _I thought darkly.

Something suddenly strained against my neck and I was yanked back onto the windowsill. There was a loud 'snap' as something broke and I started, staring down at my neck. Sasuke's hand was the one grabbing me by my restrainer chain but a black, white beaded necklace stared back at me, harmless and innocent.

The sounds of small beads clattering against the floor brought me back to reality and I realized suddenly that the necklace was broken.

"**Come on Itachi, it'll look pretty on you!" **

All of a sudden, my anger welled up and surfaced; my hand was around my younger brother's neck in an instant. My grip around his neck began to tighten and I flung him against a wall mercilessly, my previous intention of holding back was gone and was replaced with a strange and unfamiliar bloodlust. I began to approach my motionless younger brother and stopped in front of him, my head lowered to my chest. Just as I raised my fist to strike Sasuke, something warm and strong gripped my upper arm tightly, preventing me from swinging at the defenceless shinobi slumped against the wall in a state of unconsciousness.

"Itachi-san," Sakura's voice was quiet and pleading.

And for a moment, I hesitated. A sudden anger, a sudden fear, washed over me; when had I ever hesitated? What had caused me to hesitate? I couldn't be hesitating over _killing _someone; I had erased all the morals Shisui had tried and failed to teach me. And this…this stupid _girl _was hanging onto my arm and I was letting her do so, when had I stooped so low?

Instead of striking the boy who once was, I lashed out and struck the stupid kunoichi. She remained latched firmly onto my arm though and I began to hit her, again and again, in a repeated attempt to get her off. She was an annoying parasite and I had had enough of her, I wanted to break her, I wanted to _kill _her.

For the first time in a long time, my self control had simply vanished. I allowed such stupid emotions to take control of me and my hits began to grow stronger and stronger, I was dimly aware of the pain coursing throughout my body. She began to whimper and I drew what little satisfaction I could from the painful sounds she made.

My dark red eyes flared as the hold on my arm eventually loosened and the pink haired kunoichi fell to the floor, gripping the hem of my black pants. I kicked at her to get her off and she cried out loudly, rolling across the floor limply. I could hear her crying, I could hear her breathing slow and she began to crawl towards me again. She grasped at my pants again and I kicked her again and again but she refused to let go, her face streaked with blood and tears. My kicks became weaker and weaker as I began to realize she wasn't letting go and the pain I had inflicted upon her soon became my own. I fell to my knees and I stared at her blankly, exhaustion settling in and my self control gradually began to return to me.

She looked up at me through tear filled eyes and what I saw there sent a shiver down my spine and my throat constricted for the briefest of moments.

In her eyes…there wasn't a hint of hatred. There was this unsettling and unnerving _trust_ reflected in her eyes, trust that I had no idea I had even _gained_.

I became filled with disgust.

"I hate you," I hissed at her, watching for a change. Betrayal, hurt, something, _anything_ but that unreasonable expression in her eyes.

She remained silent, watching me through those unflinching jade eyes. Her silence irked me and I raised my hand to hit her again, to hit her until she broke. I could no longer find the strength to raise it though, everything about me felt so heavy, and she began to stir, touching my limp hand where it lay on the floor. My breathing was erratic and loud, ruby red eyes wide open.

"I hate you," I repeated again and she began to move closer to me, her fingers twitching against the open palm of my own. I was slumped over in a sitting position, the both of us looked so very pathetic. She began to straighten up and I could no longer move, simply watching her. I was so sure for a moment that she had cast a paralysis jutsu on me but when my fingers in my left hand twitched involuntarily, I realized that there was no jutsu.

I could feel her hot tears making their way down her face, trickling down my skin, but I couldn't derive any satisfaction whatsoever from them. I could smell the blood that covered her body and instead of the adrenalin rush I had felt just a couple of moments ago, I was filled with disgust and repulsion at my lack of self control.

"If you're waiting for me to say the same thing back, I won't," She began in a hoarse whisper.

"I can't hate you…not when you're so full of self hatred."

* * *

**A/N:  
**Uh...I'm terrified Itachi is awfully OOC here. Yeah. Then again, my Itachi is rather different so I derive some little satisfaction from that. :)

This is where the major angst starts and this is my cue to leave for a month! I leave for Philippines tomorrow and I won't be updating for a long time (not that I normally don't...). .

Here's the usual preview...

**Preview:**

_"Don't turn out the way we did."_

**"Stay with me."**

"He's a monster."

**_"Ayame, come on!"_**

"Be safe."

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear)**


	8. The End of Concern

**Chapter 8: A Truth Revealed**

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

She gasped loudly before slapping a hand over her mouth to stifle all sounds that suggested her weakness, her prominent chest heaving up and down as she struggled for air. Naruto and I had moved on from our sad, destroyed little hut and had found Hinata fighting against four or five ninja. Three of them were on the ground dead already.

It was obviously an unfair fight but when you were a ninja, who cared? All the same though, Naruto had destroyed three of the ninja in a burst of angry red chakra and had turned upon the other two. I chose to watch from the sidelines; Naruto obviously could handle things himself.

After about five seconds of watching Naruto thrash the weak ninja, I entered Hinata's quarters. I looked around the neat and tidy room that was surprisingly intact, despite the battle we were in. Samehada was easy to find (you couldn't exactly hide something that big) and was propped up against the wall in a corner of the room. I picked it up and swung it over my broad shoulder, the unexpected weight was a welcome stranger to me after having not used a weapon in so long. I ducked as I exited Hinata's room; the doorframe was much too low, and wasn't surprised to see the enemy ninja slung carelessly across the floor, dead.

It had begun raining and the bridge was slippery with the fallen raindrops. Naruto ran over to Hinata, who didn't look like she'd be moving on her own anytime soon, and his flimsy leather sandals skidded on the bridge as he sprinted. Water flew up in all directions and the very direction of the rain seemed to change as it came into contact with the malevolent red chakra that surrounded the sun-kissed boy.

He dropped down to his knees beside her and she had put a shaky hand on his shoulder, closing her eyes as she tried to get her breathing under control. "Hinata! Oi, what's wrong? Hinata?"

"N-Naruto-kun," She whispered his name, clutching at his uncharacteristically dark clothes tightly, her knuckles turning white with the force she exerted.

Naruto's pair of cerulean eyes widened as Hinata began to cough up blood, trying to hide the spurts of red liquid behind her pale hand but a few treacherous drops gave away her condition. The blonde haired ninja laid her on the ground delicately, ripping open her shirt to get a better look at what was causing her so much pain.

It was kind of funny. In a life or death situation, you found yourself doing things that you would never have the courage to do in normal everyday life. Take this for example; Naruto would have started trembling before going anywhere near Hinata's shirt and Hinata would have gone bright red and speechless. Now that she was obviously severely injured though, all sense of pride and the morally right had disappeared in an instant.

I could make out the three senbon needles thrust into her upper right arm, rendering it useless, and the big graze on her left cheek. Naruto took a sharp intake of breath and I didn't have to see the rest of Hinata's body to know that she wasn't doing too well. Naruto lifted up Hinata as gently and as swiftly as possible, turning his head to throw me a quick and searching glance.

"Come on fish man, let's go," Naruto called to me and I nodded, running for a few paces after him.

I had used up most of my chakra earlier but I still had more than enough to get me away from here. Unseen by Naruto, I made a few quick gestures and the thin layer of wetness that the rain had graced me with began to hover slightly in mid-air and became a huge shapeless blob. It began to morph, stretching and shivering, until a perfect water replica of me ran was running at my side. I stopped moving as soon as the water had finished materializing. The clone threw a look at me over his shoulder, a sad look painted onto the both of our faces.

I watched the three of them leave.

With each step they took away from me, the emptier I felt.

With every loud slap that their feet made against the wet surface, the hollower everything began to sound in my ears.

The way Naruto looked at Hinata. It made me feel sad, empty. It reminded me of _her _and me in every way. The very scene seemed so…so familiar. I didn't have to think to realize why. I lowered my head to my chest, drawing my onyx eyes away from the three retreating figures. I issued Naruto a warning, advice that I wished I had had so many years ago in a quiet, hoarse whisper.

"Don't turn out the way we did."

I turned away from the blonde haired boy and the dark haired girl. I jumped down from the bridge and pushed off from tree to tree to slow myself down before landing on my feet in a crouch. The rain fell down upon me and I looked up at the swollen sky through the twisted and gnarled forest canopy.

I laughed quietly to myself. The rain rang in my ears, an echoing pitter patter of senselessness.

It was only now.

It was only now, out here with only the rain to listen to and Samehada's reassuring weight pressed against my shoulder.

It was only now I realized how alone I was all of a sudden.

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

The moment I had turned to look back at Kisame, there had been something in his onyx black eyes which had felt so…so sad. The smirk on his face seemed almost plastered and as I turned back to the path of the bridge, I knew.

He was going to leave.

I knew that if I had hung behind and run at his pace, he wouldn't be able to run away. And for that very reason, I ran ahead of him, running as fast as I could.

The leather of his blue sandals slapped against the floor, each slap a loud and resounding bell of impending sorrow. I heard the sound of four various footsteps conflicting with each other and knew that he was leaving; he must have made a clone to try and convince me he was still there. Something quiet and barely inaudible reached my ears and I found myself looking up to hold back the tears I wanted to cry. I knew that this would be the last time I ever saw him again and I wanted him to live.

I wanted so much. I wanted him to be a citizen of Konoha. I wanted him to be a ninja, working alongside me. I wanted his name cleared. I wanted him to live.

"_Don't turn out the way we did."_

There was something more to his enigmatic words, a message I almost understood. I couldn't help but feel like those words were the saddest and most sincere words he had ever said in his life. I felt…I felt they were related to the mysterious woman he had once cherished and as the rain began to fall, I managed a little half-hearted smile.

At least he wasn't totally alone.

Hinata suddenly coughed and I felt the urge to whack myself overcome me, she was _dying_ and I was too busy thinking about that stupid shark crossbreed! I picked up the pace, screaming out Sakura's name. My pace grew faster and faster, my voice grew louder and louder. She inhaled sharply, loudly. Her heart was pounding in my ears.

"Naruto, I can heal myself," She told me quietly and I stopped, looking at her through relieved cerulean orbs.

"Why didn't you say so sooner?" I grumbled in half hearted annoyance that I didn't really mean and lowered her to the ground gradually, being particularly careful not to hurt her in any way.

She closed her eyes and I watched her skilful hands, mesmerized by the soft green light that flowed from her hands and into her bleeding open wound. The very sight of the gash made me want to hug her or at least give her _some_ comfort. I didn't know how she could put up with something like that without screaming out in pain. As the wound began to gradually close by itself, I noticed how taut the skin pulled over it was and asked her about it.

She explained sadly, "When someone heals with chakra, the person being healed suffers in the long run because all you're simply doing is forcing the healing to go faster. Your body ages quicker and you die earlier than others."

I stared at her in horror. All those times she and Sakura had healed someone…they were just shortening that person's life?

"That's why we try to use more material ways of healing and avoid chakra unless it's absolutely necessary," She added and then suddenly realization hit me like a sack of bricks.

If Hinata was constantly in contact with the chakra needed for healing…wouldn't the same rule apply to her?

"Then…will you die earlier as well?" I asked in barely a whisper, dreading the answer.

The slight twitch at the corners of her lips told me everything I needed to know.

I fell to my knees at her side, groping about for her hands and she made no protest as I squeezed them tightly. I kissed each and every one of her slender fingers, she instead watched me tiredly through her unreadable opaque eyes. My cerulean eyes welled up with unshed tears as I realized that she and Sakura were giving up so much more than I ever could...than Sasuke ever could…

A lump in my throat all but prevented me from asking the next question but I forced myself to ask Hinata a final question.

"How long…?" I asked her in a strangled, reluctant voice. I found my usually effortless courage draining out of me as if someone had pulled out a plug from its socket; I just couldn't ask her the rest of the question.

She smiled a sad heartbreaking smile.

"I probably won't live to be forty," She told me calmly in that soothing, quiet voice of hers.

She sat up gingerly, resting a hand against the bridge behind her to support her weight. I was barely aware of how close our faces were until she drew back slightly and turned her face away from mine. It was…it was as if she were ashamed of herself for having told me, her silver eyes were glazed over like a potter's final masterpiece.

I felt a surge of sudden anger, why the hell did she take up such a job if she _knew _it was going to kill her? Nobody should be expected to give up that much…and Hinata…this was Hinata! She…couldn't have made this decision by herself…someone must have forced her.

"Why…?" I whispered to her in disbelief and she made no move to reply.

We were left in an eternity of silence, the air around us an invisible shield to the outside world. All I could see was Hinata and all I could hear was the rise and fall of her steady breathing, rise and fall…rise and fall…

My hands snaked upwards slightly to cup her pale cheeks; she was so very cold and pale. She closed her eyes and I felt a slight pressure against my hands as she leaned further into my calloused palms. She opened her mouth slightly before shutting it again and I found myself captivated by the movement.

"You don't have to do this job," I told her.

She deserved a long and full life…didn't everyone? Being a ninja certainly did nothing for Hinata, she was just so different from the rest of us…she was much better suited as a gentlewoman or such; she didn't _belong_ on the battlefield. She should have just left the fighting to the rest of us and none of us would think any lower of her…

Her eyes flickered open and for the first time ever they shone like a silvery beacon of determination. I could almost smell her will to live steaming off of her and she looked unflinchingly into my eyes.

"I know that," She murmured to me.

I was taken aback by her sudden strength and stared at her for a moment, wondering where her previous shyness had gone. She had certainly surprised me, who knew Hinata was full of so many surprises, but all I could do for the moment was admire her and her strength…a strength I longed to possess…

All of a sudden my mind had lost total control of my speech and my body.

My own face moved gradually towards hers. Her eyes were wide with surprise at the unexpected praise and I wondered when the last time was anyone ever gave her a compliment was.

Our foreheads touched and our eyelashes fluttered open and close at the same time in perfect synchronization. I realized how opposite we were in that moment; white and tan, blue and white, black and blonde. But then, found that I didn't really care, all I was thinking about was this moment and how short Hinata's life would be compared to mine.

And then, both of our faces were wet with tears but I couldn't tell whose they were; hers or mine. My breathing quickened, the loudest thing in my ears, and she made not a sound, not a single move. My hands groped around for hers and I held them tightly. I was afraid that if I let go she would slip through my fingers like water and she would be gone in the next minute. It was as if we were connected and a single break, a single flaw in that connection and I would lose her forever.

I needed to know she was here and still here with me. I didn't want to have someone leave me again. I needed her. I _needed_ her to be here and her soothing presence. I couldn't lose her like I did Kisame and Sasuke and all the others.

"Stay with me," I begged her desperately, clutching at her shoulders.

She was absolutely silent. She pulled back from me with a far off look in her eyes. She was no longer smiling as she had been. This new expression of sadness, of _regret_, was the thing that frightened me the most. Her eyes were wet and she leaned forwards, her lithe arms wrapped around my broad shoulders.

I buried my face in the crook of her neck, kissing the pale skin tenderly to make sure she was still there, that she wasn't about to fade away. She gasped slightly at the feel of my warm lips against her cold skin and I began to kiss her feverishly, I was dimly aware of the red chakra of the Kyuubi taking control. I grew more demanding, my hand crawled up her thin shirt and all of a sudden I felt the urge to rip it off overwhelm me, my fingers trembling with anticipation. I traced an invisible path of kisses up her neck until I reached the corner of her mouth and I growled slightly in the back of my throat, looking down at her, meeting her eyes.

That one look was all it took for me to get the demon within me under control.

That one look, filled with so much trust and love, that I had longed for since I was a child. I felt overwhelmed by her expression and paused, pulling my hand free from underneath her shirt and straightened up from where I lay on top of her. I wasn't aware when I had pushed her to the floor but I sure as hell knew I was on top of her now. I was reluctant to pull my eyes away from her and all but forced myself to look away.

As my head turned however, a pair of slender arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me down into a gentle kiss.

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

The dim morning after the unexpected ambush was quiet. The wooden bridges were strewn with bodies of ninja, creaking and groaning underneath the added weight, and the smell of the newly dead no longer affected me. I had been around corpses much too long that I had gotten used to it but apparently that wasn't so with Sakura who turned a pale shade of green whenever she came into contact with a dead person. However, what I did find strange was the complete lack of effort to remove the dead bodies from the structure; I would have thought that Konoha still valued life and whatever sappy lies they fed to their genin on a silver spoon.

As I leaned against the wooden railing, I found myself thinking yet again. Sakura was somewhere near me, healing again I guessed, and I was left in contemplative silence. The corner of my lip twitched slightly in annoyance as Sakura's words from the night before struck a nasty chord in the sonata of my life.

"_I can't hate you…not when you're so full of self-hatred."_

How could she _dare _to make such an accusation? She was a low, weak ANBU ninja who couldn't even fend for herself, how could she _dare_ tell me that I was full of…full of…

My calloused hands clenched the splintering railing behind me.

I hated those words. They were words of weakness, words of vulnerability and I had no desire whatsoever to hear them. I had always surrounded myself with the strong, untouchable things but everywhere I looked now I was surrounded by compassion and weakness. The tight scars on my face began to itch slightly and my mouth twitched slightly in an attempt to soothe the itchy feeling.

My blood red eyes flickered to Sakura's form as she leaned over a blonde woman who seemed to be in a lot of pain. A long, dark haired man held the woman's hand tightly, his dark brown eyes reflected worry and mounds and mounds of love. I grimaced at the sight, disgusted with what I saw, how could they be proper ninja if they wore their heart on their sleeve?

"She'll be alright, Shikamaru-san," Sakura murmured to the man and he nodded in relief.

He put an uncertain hand on her shoulder and quietly thanked her before ordering, "Get some sleep, Sakura-san. You need it more than the rest of us do."

Sakura simply smiled at him, a startling expression amidst the death surrounding her, and turned away from him. Her smile dropped the moment her back was turned and she stayed as far as our bond would let her. She made no move to come any closer and I looked up at the sky, patterned by the tree branches, convinced that I didn't care about her sudden caution.

Her words came back to me and I released the railing I was barely aware I was still clenching, murmuring something incomprehensible under my breath. In the pocket of my cloak, the remains of my necklace were a slightly reassuring weight.

**We sat where we always did, the three of us. Ayame, Shisui and I, that is. Night had begun to creep in stealthily, casting an iridescent glow on the village below us, and we had a perfect view of it from where we sat atop the Fourth Hokage's monument. For once, we were all completely silent, captivated by the village where we lived.**

**Shisui was the first one to break the ice, as he always was, with a smug smirk and a confident, "That's ours."**

**His shoulder length shaggy brown hair framed his strong, defined face and his brown eyes sparkled brightly as the lights from the village below were reflected in his glassy eyes. At the age of eighteen, he stood at two heads taller than me; quite short for a ninja of his age. He had a large dark green duffel bag slung over one shoulder and a bright 'Sexy Ninja' patch was hastily ironed onto it.**

"**To be precise, it's the Hokage's," I reminded him. He threw me a lazy look over his shoulder and shrugged, looking over the railing.**

"**I don't really care if it's the Hokage's by right. It's ours and will always be ours. It's our home and the place I love," He replied with a note of passion in his voice.**

"**The place _we_ love," Ayame murmured.**

**Her quiet, reserved voice rang out strangely in the silence of the deserted place, echoing slightly in the darkness. Shisui's smirk grew as he walked over to her and sat at her side, long legs crossed. Ayame's brown hair was only a shade or two lighter than Shisui's and he slung a lazy arm over her womanly shoulders, causing her pretty face to flush an embarrassed pink. He leaned closer towards her and tried to kiss her, but she turned her face away at the last moment. He was rewarded with a mouthful of hair. **

"**Ayame, come on," He grumbled in annoyance at her reluctance and I felt something within me whoop in triumph at his rejection. **

**He reached into the deep pocket of his jounin flak jacket and drew out a cigarette along with a transparent red lighter, one of those cheap ones you could buy for two dollars at any corner store. Ayame's face fell slightly at the sight of the cigarette and Shisui noticed her dislike of it. He pocketed the cigarette unhappily and began to flick the lighter repeatedly, watching the flame flicker to life before dying out again.**

**My mouth began to twitch as the repetitive sound began to get on my nerves; there was only so much I could take. I told him curtly, "Shisui, if you don't stop flicking that damn lighter I will break it."**

**He let out a loud sigh and bent his knees, staring down at Konoha. He stood up and walked over to the peeling blue railing, leaning against it with his arms. His back was to Ayame and I, she looked at me questioningly at his antics. I stared back impassively at her. All of a sudden Shisui drew his arm back before flinging his lighter over the monument. It clattered noisily against the tirelessly carved, wearing out stone faces of the various leaders and he shoved his hands into his pockets, a scowl on his face.**

"**I now have a reason to go and buy a new lighter. I'll see you two later," He waved us goodbye before disappearing in a quick flash and reappearing some few feet below us. He flashed and reappeared in quick succession on his way down to the village, clearly befitting of his nickname The Mirage. We watched as his dark figure grew farther and farther in the distance.**

"**Did I do something wrong?" Ayame asked me nervously and I shrugged indifferently.**

"**He's just annoyed that you didn't let him kiss you," I answered her. I ignored the guilty look on her face and added mentally, **_it's a good thing you didn't let him do it too._

"**The two of you must be really stressed though. With the both of you having made ANBU and with the extra missions…" She trailed off towards the end of her sentence and I shrugged again, nonchalantly. I didn't really notice the change in my workload, it just meant less time for practicing ninjutsu.**

"**But are you okay with everything?" She asked me worriedly. I looked at her and my blood red eyes softened slightly, my lips curved slightly upwards in a reserved smile that only she could bring out.**

"**I'm fine. How's your job though? At Ichiraku?" I changed the subject abruptly, I didn't like talking about my work.**

**She laughed, a tinkly musical sound, and replied teasingly, "You should know, since you and Shisui are there nearly every day. It's going great though, my boss is a nice man."**

"**That's good," I told her, unsure of what to say next. A silence fell between the two of us and I stole frequent glances at her, all of which she was totally oblivious to.**

**She always sat with her back upright and she possessed that gentlewoman quality that the richer upper-class women dreamed of having. Her face was soft and slightly tanned. She was like a portrait; each feature lovingly painted onto a living canvas. Chocolate brown eyes filled with a warmth and intensity that completely and totally overwhelmed you were set into her beautiful face. I supposed her regal air was what attracted Shisui to her; he always did go for girls who were different.**

**And then I wondered. How could a woman like her be a waitress, a _waitress_ of all things, at a roadside ramen shop? **

**I stood up, noticing that it was getting quite dark already, and held out a hand for Ayame to take so that I could help her up. She smiled gratefully at me, the contours of her face blended perfectly into one another, and she wrapped her two slender hands around mine. I pulled her to her feet without any effort at all, she was quite light, and she thanked me. **

"**_ANBU squad number 32, you are needed at the Hokage's tower immediately," _A voice crackled through on the thick black walkie talkie strapped into the belt of my sleek black ANBU uniform. **

"**_This is Itachi, I understand," _I confirmed my attendance and looked to Ayame. I inclined my head slightly and began to walk away from her, she knew why I was leaving and there was no reason to say goodbye.**

**However, she seemed to think otherwise.**

**She grasped my wrist in her gentle grip and I stopped, turning my head to look at her. She pulled me into a warm embrace that seemed so foreign, so strange, and she kissed my forehead tenderly. Something raced through my veins, like an electric shock, reaching every single cell in my body and I found that it wasn't a terrible feeling.**

"**Be safe," She whispered a blessing.**

My fingers clenched around my broken necklace as the mental dam holding back memories of a different life cracked slowly, memory by memory, piece by piece. It began to flood my mind and I was drowning in my past. I was losing my resolve and the oblivion I had worked so hard to gain. I had forgotten about the two of them for the past six years…why was it that I remembered them now?

Someone grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and I was all but nose to nose with my younger brother. His onyx eyes were filled with fury and I remained calm and unflinching, staring unashamedly into his now mature face. His facial expression said what two thousand words could not.

"What the _fuck_ did you do to Sakura?" He demanded. The entire encampment had grown silent with his serious accusation and I felt every pair of eyes in the area upon me. I remained quiet as long as I could, closing my dark red eyes.

"He didn't do anything! I was attacked by an enemy nin and-" Sakura protested loudly and I was surprised at her foolish attempt to defend me. However, pride prevented me from lying, even if it was Sakura who brought on the lie, and I opened my eyes again to meet Sasuke's.

"I beat her," I told him flatly.

I wasn't surprised when he hit me hard across the face, I almost expected it. He began to hit me again and again, furiously. I dodged most of his hits, my movements sloppy with only the slightest hint of a once effortless grace. My body was so tired and my mind was flickering on and off like a broken light bulb. Sakura screamed out in pain as my beating became hers and the blonde haired Kyuubi ran out to hold Sasuke back, knowing the consequences.

"Please, don't touch him," Sakura begged him and he struggled against Naruto wildly, glaring at her.

"Sakura, stop defending him! He's a mass murderer, he killed his own family and he tried to kill _you_. He would kill you in the blink of an eye if you gave him the chance," Sasuke spat at her viciously and he turned his head to meet my eyes.

"He's a monster."

**Next chapter preview: Departure**

"_**Do you know why they were so unwilling to let anyone under the age of fifteen train to become a medic?"**_

"My name is Hikari."

"_I would look for you."_

"**Thank you so much…thank you…"**

**A/N: **

Well, this is where serious angst begins. I tried to step everything up a notch and that means the angst should be sadder. Of course, for those of you who read the original then uh…sorry. Yeah, it's killing me to rewrite all the angst again as well. All my hard work…

There aren't going to be any Shisui/Itachi flashbacks for a long time. It's all Kisame now. What can I say, I'm getting attached to him. The next few chapters might be the worst ones because I've been away for a long time so I don't really remember what my characters are like or how they react. I need to rewrite all the Itachi scenes.

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD SOMEONE DREW ME A FANART-

Yes, it does happen. Kin Kin drew me one for Never Ending Rainfall and now I get another one for Defining Evil. The artist didn't inform me (at least I don't think she did) but I was so bored I started googling Selandora and what-hey this kick ass fan art pops up. So many thanks to super cool XII-Itachi for my amazing fan art.

If you've drawn me anything just **go ahead and tell me. **It's always cool to get it and it makes you crazy for about ten minutes and smile for the next two hours. Hoohoo yes indeedy, just go ahead and tell sexy selandora about all the fan arts you make and-

Selandora


	9. Friendship's End

**Part 2: The Spring of the Fifth Year of the Godaime's Reign**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

"Are you finished packing, Sakura-chan?" Naruto's loud boisterous voice was slightly muffled by the rice paper door.

I sighed, staring down at the half empty dark green bag. I dragged myself over to the chest of white drawers and pulled them open one by one, checking if I had forgotten anything.

I decided to leave the radio there, like I did every time, but I knew that this would be the last time anyone ever saw this place again. Even though I knew that though, it felt like I was just going to come here tomorrow and it would be exactly the same. Of course, now that the Village of Sound had found it obviously never could. I picked up the two weapon pouches on the writing desk and strapped them around my thigh and upper arm; the reassuring weight was comforting.

I no longer wore the restrainer; Kakashi wore it now. It was decided that he was much stronger than me and with the most experience when it came to escorting S Class criminals. Itachi wasn't allowed to come anywhere near me after the ambush incident. I wasn't afraid to admit that I missed his silent and prideful presence. I drew the drawstrings of the duffel bag and secured them in a tight bow. I slung the bag carelessly over my shoulder and it beat against my back in protest, as if it wanted to stay here.

We were leaving. Shikamaru had decided that it was too dangerous to let Itachi stay in a room with anyone anymore, after my beating. Also, the Hidden Sound now knew where our base was we would suffer from more and more attacks. The safest route was to retreat back to Konoha and get Itachi's execution over and done with, even though we didn't have Kisame with us.

Kisame…yeah, he was gone. During the confusion, he had convinced Naruto to remove his restrainer and had slipped away in the aftermath. Naruto had been too concerned about Hinata to notice (he was such a dumbass) and foolishly ran off to get help without Kisame. I could throttle him, I swear.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto began banging on the wooden part of the door, clearly impatient with my delay.

I walked reluctantly towards the rice paper door but then paused as the hairs of my neck stood on end. A cold draft blew through the room and reached for me like invisible hands, trying to pull me back and stay a while longer. I began to walk again, hurriedly this time, desperate to get out of the room now. But…I stopped as I reached the entrance and looked back with a melancholy look in my jade eyes.

The lonely windowsill glared back at me and for a fleeting moment I saw a vivid red eyed young man lounging on it peacefully.

As I blinked however, the image disappeared and I was left standing alone again.

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

A quiet wind stole through the area like a stealthy thief, ripping through the dark cloak I wore. The silver haired copy-nin beside me grimaced slightly as the cold wind smacked across the face mercilessly. Well, 'face' wasn't the word…it was more his only visible eye. The copy-nin glanced at me in a fairly obvious manner, his bluntness surprised me slightly but then again, this was the copy-nin.

"Would you rather be with Sakura?" He asked me suddenly.

He watched me expectantly, anticipating my answer. I would not lower myself to such a level that I would _lie_ as such, pride prevented me from doing so. However, telling half truths was how I had survived all these years. At the moment I decided that it was the best course of action.

"She is loud," I told him simply and his navy mask strained as he smiled a smile that didn't totally reach his onyx eye.

"Yes, but that wasn't my question, Itachi-san," He pressed me further for an answer. I glared at him coolly, remaining silent. The copy-nin's smile grew wider as he realized what my silence must have meant.

"She does worm her way under your skin, doesn't she?" He laughed quietly and I chose to ignore him, allowing him to talk to himself. His laughter then disappeared and was replaced by a saddened sigh. The heavy sigh was so different from his light laughter.

"Out of all of my students, she's the one I pity the most however," He murmured solemnly and I tried not to look interested. I merely shifted my head further away from the talkative ninja. A long silence fell and I waited for him to explain why he pitied the loudmouth.

He asked me, "Do you know why they're so unwilling to let anyone under the age of fifteen train to become a medic?"

My entire body stiffened and I remained as still as still could be. His words stuck a nasty chord inside of me and for a moment I had to check myself. I was concerned over that girl? How silly. But, this girl…she had trained to become a medic before she had turned fifteen? She…she was…

She was so foolish.

"You know what they say about medics. They begin medic-training and then they've only got about thirty years to go. But…if the medic-training begins when puberty hasn't completely settled in yet…" The copy-nin trailed off towards the end of his sentence and his sentence left a bitter taste in my mouth as I finished it off mentally.

"_They've got twenty years left to live_."

There was very complicated reasoning behind this, but it definitely wasn't a smart thing to start training as a medic-nin before you hit puberty. Your body hasn't changed yet and since you're already putting your body under a lot of stress, your cells start getting damaged. However, when you finally do reach puberty, your cells are already so damaged already that you put your body under even _more _stress because of the changes its going through. Since I was smart, I picked up on it immediately.

Medic-nin were the most respected form of ninja in all of society. It was a respect born out of sympathy however and countless medics after medic had died throughout the years.

Why did you think there were so many people unwilling to be medics?

His next comment threw me slightly off guard, "Had it not been for you, she never would have taken this job."

"I do not see how that is possible," I replied flatly and logically. I began to realize how fake his smile seemed, how tense his stance was. As I stared at his eye I realized the faint flicker of anguish and anger burning within it.

The copy-nin's smile grew into a slight smirk and he murmured a quiet, "Oh, really?" before lapsing into a lazy silence, watching me like a hawk for some sort of reaction. A few moments passed between us and I began to grow annoyed with him. He was obviously waiting for me to inquire further.

My temper got the better of me and I snapped a hasty, "If you are intending to continue then do so."

The copy-nin let out another short chuckle that began to grate against my nerves like a skin irritation. He was the epitome of aggravation and I found myself longing for the pink haired girl to replace this one; even though she was loud she wasn't half as annoying. He tapped his silver Konoha forehead protector twice before glancing at me with a solemn look in his eye.

"I'm very sure you know of your brother's little escapade to Orochimaru, yes?" He asked me and I inclined my head slightly in answer to his question.

"When Sasuke left, Sakura-san was heartbroken because she had loved him. So…in hopes of growing stronger and proving to him that she was strong she became a medic nin. It's all really your fault, considering that you're the reason he left and why he's hell bent on making himself stronger. Of course, Naruto's helped soothe that somewhat but avengers will be avengers," The silver haired man shrugged slightly as he finished.

"This is none of my concern," I told him blatantly and he shrugged again, looking up through the thick forest canopy at the barely visible dark sky.

"I don't know; I'm quite convinced it may be," He murmured quietly.

* * *

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

I supposed Itachi must have known by now that I had managed to escape. It didn't seem as though he would be joining me and I felt a small twang of loss in my chest. Annoyance followed soon afterwards, Itachi had been a good partner and now I doubted I would even be allowed to return to Akatsuki.

Returning to Akatsuki would be just like handing myself over to the Hokage for execution, it wasn't an option. I would probably be killed; I was on the leader's long time coming list of uselessness and since Itachi and I had both failed to capture the Kyuubi even though we had spent over three months of direct contact with him. Itachi would be luckier, he worked better alone and his genius was well respected within Akatsuki.

I knew that the Leader was going to ask him sooner or later if he wanted to become his deputy but now we had both managed to get captured, I doubted it would be a long time coming now. I knew that if Itachi were asked, he would take the position in an instant. He loved power.

I swung Samehada experimentally in a long arc, revelling in the way the wind whistled as the spiked sword cut through it mercilessly. It had been too long since I had held a weapon in my hand and it felt oddly unwelcome now that I thought about it. My days as a prisoner had ironically softened me up slightly. An image of a soft faced woman flickered through my mind and I growled deep in my throat as memories of her washed through my mind.

I supposed that Naruto and Hinata had reminded me too much of my own past, of my own messed up love life. It seemed like an age away since I had last seen Hikari and my throat still clenched at the mere thought of her name.

"**_I would look for you."_**

I reasoned with myself and gave myself eight weeks tops before Akatsuki or Konoha eventually hunted me down and killed me. I wasn't a good tracker nor was I stealthy; Akatsuki knew that more than well enough. It would be far too easy for them to find me and I decided to make the best of my short grace period.

"_I guess I'm going back to Shirokami then," _I thought solemnly, hefting Samehada slightly further upwards.

I supposed returning to Shirokami was a stupid idea. After all, I was just heading towards Konoha, the very place I was supposed to be brought to originally, and the ANBU ninja squad would probably stay there. At that moment and for a long time before, I held a total disregard for my own life so I guessed it didn't really matter. It was then I realized how utterly silly I was to leave the ANBU squad. They could have just killed me sooner.

I was using up far too much chakra far too fast as I raced towards Shirokami. It was a foreboding race against time; I needed to reach Shirokami before the ANBU squad or Akatsuki found me. I knew infinitely what my eventual and fatal prize would be but if I managed to see Hikari in the end it was a definite bonus.

**I had intended to stay in a desolate city known simply as Shirokami for about three days before leaving to report to Akatsuki, having finished my mission a week before the supposed deadline. The city was a dirty and shady place, beggars in the streets and whores at every corner. Every now and again, you would hear the occasional scream of agony but after the first few screams you began to ignore the sound and walked on casually, pretending it had never happened.**

**I ducked as I entered the wooden structure of a rank smelling whorehouse, pushing open the dark red double curtains as I passed through them. The raucous laughter and flirtatious conversation halted immediately the moment I stepped into the room. Everything was replaced by an eerie and frightened silence. There was a quiet, polite cough and the noise from before returned. It was the slightest bit more cautious, reserved and quiet sounding.**

**A heavily made up woman approached me nervously, her fingers fidgeting nervously with the bright red bow of her pale white kimono. She asked me anxiously, "I-Is there anything we c-can do for you, s-sir?"**

"**How much does a whore cost for a night?" I demanded bluntly and she squeaked slightly as she caught sight of the huge broadsword I carried with me, strapped onto my back.**

"**Only three hundred yen, sir!" She answered me quickly and I pulled out three notes from within the folds of my cloak. I grinned at her, two rows of razor sharp gleaming white teeth revealed themselves as I did so, just to scare her. It obviously worked and she scampered over to a group of girls I presumed were the other whores.**

**A single girl was pushed out of the crowd and shoved towards me by two other women; both wore nervous looks on their faces. The girl they were pushing, however, she didn't seem in the least bit scared and her feet shuffled along the floor as she walked. She held onto the two women beside her for support and her head was bowed. I couldn't see her face.**

**When she was but two steps away from me, I gripped her chin and tilted her face upwards to get a better look at her. A white gossamer veil covered her face and when I made to lift it up the women around her began to protest loudly. Their voices annoyed me so I let the veil fall and paid them the three hundred yen they shrieked for. **

**The blonde haired whore wordlessly grasped my wrist and led me up a flight of stairs up to what I presumed were the private rooms. Her free hand glided across the polished banister and slid across the walls as she walked. I couldn't tell if it was for moral support or a guide in the dim light of the whorehouse. **

**She knelt down and slid a shojo screen open, her blonde head bowed. I entered silently and sat down on the futon laid out inside, watching the woman as she stood up and walked towards me. Her hands grasped my shoulders as soon as I was within an arm's reach and she sat down in front of me, her face still covered by that same white veil. I reached out and lifted it up, to see what this woman really looked like. I sat back on my hands and stared at her, uncertain what to do. **

**She was beautiful, yes, but…**

**I laughed loudly and bitterly, murmuring, "So they give me a blind whore."**

**Her mouth curved into a half hearted smile and she said in a womanly albeit unenthusiastic voice, "So it seems."**

**I sighed and picked up the woman, laying her down on the futon. She let out a quiet squeak of surprise and I smirked slightly at her discomfort. I would be lying if I said I wasn't at all sadistic. Her head turned to the side and her blind eyes closed, her entire body became rigid. I sighed and investigated how that annoying veil was connected to her hair. In the end, I grew so frustrated with it that I resorted to cutting it off with a kunai. **

**I stood up and walked over to the floor some few feet away from her, removing my thick Akatsuki cloak and draping it around me before laying down to sleep. The whore sat up with an expression of disbelief and confusion on her face.**

"**You're not going to do anything?" She asked me quietly and I shrugged before remembering that she couldn't see me.**

"**It's not like I'm going to let you screw me before you've even seen me," I pointed out to her bluntly. She crawled towards me, her hands feeling her way around until she touched the hem of my black and red cloak. **

**As her fingers traced a path up and down my body, I shivered and demanded in a softer tone, "What do you think you're doing?"**

"**I can see you with my hands. If I can touch your face I'll get a better idea of what you look like," She explained and I grasped her wrists tightly, lowering them from where they rested on my chest.**

"**You wouldn't want to do that," I advised her.**

**She smiled slightly and sadly before asking, "If you won't let me see you, then can I at least know your name?"**

**I remained silent, it would be foolish to give her my name (my real name anyways). A cautious silence descended and the two of us remained silent before she laughed breathily and introduced herself, "My name is Hikari."**

I had stayed with her the whole night afterwards, just talking to her. Or rather, it was Hikari talking to me; at the time I had no wish to speak to a common whore. But then the night after that, and the night after that, and the week after that I stayed in Shirokami. I paid for her every night but we never did anything physical together. I supposed I had fallen in love with her, a blind whore with not even a penny to her name, and the ending to our story wasn't altogether a happy one.

Funnily enough, it seemed as though it had never really ended.

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

We were all ready to leave for Shirokami and looked like a bunch of well dressed hikers as we stood around waiting for the order to leave. Hinata stood close to me and she nervously shuffled towards me. She still wasn't totally comfortable with our whole _relationship_ thing. Her head inclined slightly towards mine but she didn't touch me at all. I sighed breathily and hugged her close to me. A small squeak emitted from the startled and very embarrassed Hinata and inhaled the scent that was so uniquely Hinata.

It knew it sounded terribly cliché and corny but…whatever.

She was fine when we were alone, there was nobody there to embarrass her, but when it came to public displays of affection she lost all form of confidence. Of course, it didn't help that Kakashi was there and hooting for things that were…sort of nasty. I was definitely killing Jiraiya for inventing Icha Icha Paradise.

As Kakashi yelled out something particularly rude, Hinata and I both blushed a bright beetroot red. I snapped back at him angrily, "Sh-Shut up!"

Kakashi chuckled to himself but the mirth was short lived as Sakura came back. Itachi stood to the side, his blood red eyes flickering open. There was a moment of utter silence as the two of them stared at each other and an anxious tension in the air threatened to choke me.

I half expected Sakura to throw herself onto Itachi, from what I had heard the two of them were quite close now, but instead she walked past him. She totally ignored him and Itachi's eyes followed her profile as she stopped at Sasuke's side, her bruises healed and cuts gone. My cerulean eyes narrowed as I realized she must have healed herself with chakra. My grip around Hinata tightened unconsciously.

When I could finally breathe again, Shikamaru turned to us and he shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. Drawing a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it, he jerked his head to the left. It was an order for us to begin moving. I released Hinata from my hold. In a flash, we all set off quickly for Shirokami.

Shikamaru however lingered behind and sighed, flicking his red transparent lighter. A blue flame sprung from it and he knelt down, setting fire to a thin transparent string. The fire consumed it greedily and within seconds a whole network of string was revealed by the flames. He turned away and puffed his cigarette once, twice, before disappearing to catch up with the others in a smoggy black cloud of smoke.

It was only ten minutes later that the entire place caught fire.

* * *

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

"_Do you still remember?"_ I thought to myself sitting on a wide tree branch, staring up at the sky.

The clouds were grey and bunched together tightly, streaked and swollen with teardrops that had yet to be shed. Up here, hidden by the branches but open to the sky, I felt as though I would be the first one to be hit by the rain. I would be the first one to receive sympathy from the gods. I wanted to feel the pity roll down my cheeks and taste the bitterness of life.

I wanted to feel _something_.

"**It's going to rain soon," I commented and Hikari hummed in agreement, turning her head towards the direction my voice was coming from.**

"**You can smell it," She added, "I like the rain. You don't have to see it to know it's there. I can't remember what it feels like anymore though."**

"**Why not?" I questioned her curiously.**

"**We aren't allowed out of the building very often," She explained and my onyx eyes narrowed at the lack of freedom.**

**A quiet shower of rain stopped us both from speaking any further and she sighed breathily, inhaling. I watched her face glow with happiness and was overcome by melancholy, simply watching her. Her happiness was so short lived but her blindness and trust unfailing in its eternity. I approached her and put a hand on her back, resting my other hand behind her knees and she leaned into my hands willingly.**

**I lifted her up in my arms and she folded her arms across her stomach so as not to hinder me. A window at the other side of the room was left open and I stepped out of it, my feet secured to the wall of the brothel with chakra. I didn't stop walking until we stood on the roof of the building, high up above the people below us. **

**I put her on the ground and she clung to my shirt, her forehead pressed against my broad chest. I placed a hand on the small of her back, bringing her closer to me and whispered into her ear, "Can you feel that?"**

**The rain beat down upon the both of us and she smiled brilliantly, a smile that lit up everything around her. It was just so completely different from the ones before. I sat down, bringing her with me and she shifted, so that her back was facing my chest. I grasped her slim wrists and held them out in an arc and she began to laugh, a sound so genuine and warm that I soon found myself laughing along with her.**

**After a few moments of silence, she covered her mouth in disbelief and she began to cry, her tears mingled with the raindrops. I wondered if I had done something wrong for a moment. She grasped my fingers tightly. **

"**Thank you so much…thank you…"**

I blinked on instinct as a raindrop fell into my eye. My memories were swamping me like a colossal tidal wave, my resolve was a cracking dam. I was so tired now though, I couldn't move my body at all and I was powerless to do anything but remember.

The memories hurt. It hurt so much to remember everything, to remember her. I was such a fool for falling in love.

"**I envy you," Hikari murmured one night, her blind eyes shut and her voice quiet.**

"**Me?" I asked her in surprise and she nodded slightly. I pressed her further, "Why would you envy me?"**

**She laughed half-heartedly and reached her hands out for me to grasp. I took her slender hands into mine and her fingers closed over my palms. She answered me, "You can see everything. You can see the faces of the people you talk to, you can see people grow up and see the lies clearly on their faces. You can see what people are feeling and I can't see any of that."**

**I thought of what she said and after a long moment of silence, I told her, "That's bullshit, seeing isn't a blessing or anything. Sometimes…" I shifted slightly, stretching out my legs, "Sometimes, you see too much."**

"**I would give anything to see again," She murmured, ignoring my previous warning.**

"If you saw me, would you run away?" **I asked her mentally, afraid of the answer. **

**Instead, I asked her aloud, "What would you do if you could see again?"**

**She smiled a genuine smile, something extremely difficult to coax out of her, and she answered instantly, "I would look for you."**

She had explained to me that her blindness was a disease; she hadn't had her eyes burned out or anything. It _was _possible to cure it but she didn't have enough money to do so, that was why she was in the brothel. I knew I had more than enough money to help her get it cured but I was selfish, I didn't want to help her. If she had her eyes healed she would see me and then she would run…I would lose her.

I supposed it was stupid. I had fallen in love with a woman, a whore at that, all in a matter of seven days. Compassion and love were linked hand in hand and both were the most useless and most painful emotions to bear. I wanted to cast off the burden that bound me but at the same time…I didn't want to forget Hikari.

I realized with a certain irony that she had never known my name.

I smiled bitterly, embracing the rain fully.

Even if Hikari recovered her sight, she'd never be able to find me again.

* * *

**Next Chapter Preview: Bleeding Hearts**

**"Are you looking for someone? Or are you looking for something?"**

_"Do you always use force to get the things you want?"_

**A/N:**

Uhh...sorry about the preview, it's not as long as the others. There isn't much dialogue in the next chapter but it's more a thought orientated thing. It's the big lead up to...to...yeah. I hated having to bring in Hikari but I had her in the old Never Ending Rainfall and I decided it wouldn't really be a rewrite with all the same characters. OCs kill me as much as they do you guys...except for this one OC in **Wasted Years **by _Mizerable_. Now she was kick ass.

Just to let you guys know, we're into the second arc. It says in big bold letters up top. From here on out, it's going to be really depressing and angsty. Not only that but I've hit this massive writing roadblock. I wrote one of the most depressing scenes in DE and I just lost inspiration. It's like it was too sad for me to write anything afterwards. And, I don't know what to put afterwards and how everyone would react. It's a difficult life, writing makes you feel like a psychiatrist sometimes.

It kills me to wait before I post up a new chapter but I like drawing it out just to annoy you guys.

And if you have any fanart that isn't up on my profile, please tell me. Someone gave me fanart but the link to the picture didn't work. I'd just like to thank everyone again.

One last thing! Do you guys know any really good stories?

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear)**


	10. The End of Ignorance

**Chapter 10: The End of Ignorance**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

I walked beside Sasuke quietly, looking down at the dull forest floor as we travelled. My brow was furrowed in thought and I was dimly aware of the Sharingan Master some few metres ahead of us. I looked up every now and again to look at him, for what reason even I didn't know, and Sasuke didn't notice my glances. He too seemed distracted and the both of us were silent, wrapped up in our own thoughts.

Had I bothered to take notice, I would have seen that everyone seemed to stick to their own respective couples. Shikamaru was closer to Ino than was necessary, Naruto had his hands on Hinata's shoulders as they walked and Itachi was trying to edge away from Kakashi as he drew closer. I guessed Kakashi was doing it on purpose to annoy Itachi.

The night had fallen and we were about two nights away from Shirokami. I couldn't feel my legs anymore, we had been walking so long, but I ignored the feeling. My mind whirred mechanically with thoughts of the impending execution and my jade eyes flickered upwards to Itachi again.

Itachi's head was turned slightly to the side and I could just see the corner of his eye. For a moment, our eyes met but he quickly averted his eyes to the path ahead of him again. My brow creased in confusion as I realized that Itachi _had_ been staring back at me. But…why?

The puzzling moment was soon forgotten as Shikamaru announced finally, "We'll rest here for the night."

Kakashi readily volunteered to take the first shift. The first shift allowed you a longer period of undisturbed sleep; everything about him was so very _lazy_. I was stuck with the last shift and suppressed a groan. I was _always_ stuck with the last shift. Hinata offered to switch with me but I waved her off, murmuring an excuse neither of us could really understand.

Sasuke gathered a few fallen branches and laid them in the middle of the 'campsite', forming a few hand seals and breathing into the pile of sticks. A blue spark flew from his mouth eagerly and he quickly moved back as the branches burst into a merry, crackling fire. Naruto yawned as he laid a circle of rocks around the fire so that it wouldn't spread and the rest of us were busy unrolling our bedrolls to care. We had seen Sasuke light a fire many times before. It wasn't amazing anymore after you had seen it twenty times over and over again.

I felt a small pang of sadness as I watched Ino pull Shikamaru into the same bedroll as her, wrapping her arms around him. He didn't even pull away as she rested her cheek against his lean chest; the both of them closed their eyes looking so…so content.

Would I ever find someone like that? Would I ever find someone I could love wholly and know without a doubt that that love would be returned?

My life was running out and away from me though, I only had about ten years left to live. Being a ninja was a lonely job and a desperate one too when it came to life, you had to live each day like it was your last, because it could damn very well be. Most ninja tried to find their 'true love' as soon as possible and I didn't blame them, it was better to die loved than unloved. My eyes began to glaze over; from the heat of the fire or my depressing line of thought I wasn't too sure. I hugged my knees close to my chest. Stealing a glance at Itachi across the fire, his words struck me like a slap across the face all over again.

"**I hate you."**

I quietly crawled into my bedroll, turning my body away from the warmth of the fire so that my back was turned to everyone else. I thought of all the conversations that had come to pass between Itachi and I, the love and hate relationship we shared and every single second I had spent with him became a minute, an hour and then a year in my mind. It felt as if I had been with him longer than I had been with Naruto.

Would I die alone?

Tears of bitter anger and self hatred rolled down my cheeks silently. I would become just another one of the multitudes of medic-nin who died early, giving up my longevity for a bunch of people I didn't even know. I had sacrificed so much already, I would never see Konohamaru grow to become ANBU, I would never see Naruto become Hokage and I would never know if my healing actually had helped the next generation. I would never live to see if Naruto ever married Hinata, if Shikamaru ever got off his lazy ass and proposed to Ino and I bit down hard on my lip, hating the injustice of it all.

I had given up so much…wasn't it time I got something back?

I smiled bitterly.

It was no use hoping for a miracle.

* * *

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

I felt as though I had gone back in time, walking into Shirokami. The place still looked exactly the same, screwed up and dirty. I walked briskly through various alleyways and took hidden turns even residents didn't know about. I had memorized the layout of this place, having come here many times before, and as the buildings gradually grew cleaner and richer looking I became more and more wary. I stuck to the shadows and pulled the collar of my cloak tightly about my face, trying hard so as not to attract too much attention.

I was now in the richer, much more beautiful side of Shirokami but then froze up. A foreign feeling, that of utmost fear, raced through me and I took a few steps back towards the poorer sector, my usually cold eyes shone with uncertainty.

Was I really ready to face Hikari again?

"_**I would look for you."**_

What would she do if she saw me? Scream? Have me arrested?

Each of my thoughts was a sudden stab of uncertainty to my once unfailing determination and I tore my eyes away from the rich, bright buildings. Doubt settled in and I turned away from the richer area, turning back towards the dirtier part of town. I decided eventually to come back tomorrow…I was far too tired to handle anything that demanding tonight and anyways, she was probably asleep.

Or, at least, that was the excuse I told myself.

My feet dragged across the floor as I walked, kicking up a lonely dust cloud behind me, and I wasn't sure whether it was from my tiredness or reluctance. I walked into the first inn I could find, slapping a random amount of money onto the table without asking for the price of a room and went on ahead to settle in anywhere. The person at the counter made no move to stop me; he was half asleep and turned pale at the sight of Samehada.

"**Will you be leaving soon?" Hikari asked me quietly from where she lay beside me, her forehead pressed against my covered chest. Her blind eyes were closed and I sighed silently, pretending to ignore her question so that I didn't have to answer it.**

"**You are, aren't you?" She pressed me further.**

"**I am a mercenary," I told her firmly and she smiled bitterly.**

"**I suppose that's where we have the connection then, huh? I'm the one selling my body and you're selling your sword," She mused aloud. **

**It took a long time for me to gather up the strength to speak again. And even when I did so, it felt as though there were a lump in my throat and my voice came out a little quieter than it usually was.**

"**You don't have to sell your body. There are other ways of making money," I told her and she shook her head slightly, no.**

"**I am forever bound to this place unless someone buys me off or I die. And, without sight, where else can I go and what else can I do? Until I regain my sight, I won't ever be able to get a proper job," She explained, clearly upset about her position.**

**A long silence fell. As I worked things out in my head, I realized that the only way for her to be able to live without having to sell something precious to most women every single night was to help her regain her eyesight. **

"**I'm leaving tomorrow," I told her quietly.**

**She smiled and hid her face in my covered chest, clutching at my black shirt with a tightly clenched fist. We both could tell that her smile was faked. I wasn't surprised when she began to tremble quietly. She brought in another hand to clutch at my shirt. It was as if she were scared that if she let go, she would never see me again.**

**And, I supposed she wouldn't.

* * *

**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

_In, out…in, out…_

The only sound that registered in my mind was my own breathing. I couldn't tell if anyone else was awake. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't think. My mind was frenzied and I couldn't soothe it.

I lifted my head up slowly and looked around the campsite. No one was awake, everyone was fast asleep. I guessed it must have been Naruto's turn to keep watch but he was sleeping in again. I groaned mentally and realized that I would have to do his shift as well as my own.

My clothes felt disgusting and the compelling desire to change had captured me. I wondered if I could find water and perhaps wash myself but somehow doubted it. My jade eyes flickered to Itachi's form and I came to the conclusion that he was really sleeping. I grabbed a change of clothes from my bag and decided to exploit this moment of privacy.

I walked towards the cover of the trees and dropped my clean clothes on the floor. The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up as an icy cold wind caressed me gently before moving on again. I yawned widely before pulling off my shirt and looked down at my bindings. I honestly didn't feel like unravelling them like a patient person so I ripped them in half with my hands.

I shivered as something warm breezed past me again. What was wrong with the wind? It kept blowing and one moment it was cold and the next it was warm-

I stiffened as the warmth didn't leave my body.

I looked down at my hips and found a pair of hands there. I covered my exposed chest on instinct and opened my mouth to scream.

A hand covered my open mouth hastily and I felt a very masculine body pressed up against my back. It was really getting to me, that I was half naked. I should have brought sports bras like Ino instead of unreliable bandages.

"If you screamed, you would have alerted the Sound nin that you were in this area and would be dead in less than two minutes," A smooth, silky baritone voice informed me indifferently.

His hand fell away from my mouth and he stepped back from me. I didn't dare look back at him, I knew who it was and was almost terrified to look at him. His words still rang in my head and I realized that now, without the restrainer on me and everyone asleep, he could kill me.

I waited for him to break my neck in half or punch through my stomach. I was certain of my impending death and it was just a matter of time.

His body was pressed up against mine again. I could feel the calm, unhurried beat of his heart on my back and flushed. He was so relaxed while my own heart was threatening to rip a hole in my chest and do eighteen laps around the forest.

He picked up the roll of bandages and something in my chest lurched. Was he planning to strangle me with the bandages? Oh, God no, I didn't want to be strangled-

There was a soft sigh of amusement in my ear and I could feel Itachi's hot breath on my skin. I was honestly getting really freaked out by this point. Was he going to hurt me again?

"One such as I would not kill a defenceless person," He whispered, his lips moving against the smooth skin of my neck as he talked. He dropped the bandages to the ground beside him, thinking better of what he had intended to do.

His statement reminded me of how proud, arrogant, uncaring and how _frustrating_ he really was. All my fear of him dissolved into an instant retort and it was almost as if we were back at the Hidden Base for a few moments.

"I somehow doubt that," I snapped at him angrily.

Heedless of my icy tone, his hands snaked up my sides to my wrists. I did my best to ignore him and what he was doing. I tensed my whole body as he made an effort to pull my hands away from my bare chest. When it finally became clear to him that there was no way I was going to lower my hands for him, he relented and his hands began to trace patterns on my flat stomach.

I fought to keep my breathing steady; I knew he was watching me for a reaction. I looked straight ahead of me at the thick foliage, focusing on a particularly knobbly branch. I set my face into a blank expression of indifference, something I had picked up on from Itachi.

"Sakura," He murmured my name, brushing his lips over my neck and shoulder as he did so.

My heart jumped and my blood pounded loudly when he said my name. It was a feeling I was terrified to identify because of the doomed consequences. It was something I had to push away, I had to fight against. I couldn't let him take over me like this.

I tried to walk away from him but his hands locked around my stomach and pulled me towards him again. He wasn't letting me go until he got what he wanted and I grew still. Silence enveloped the both of us like a thick blanket, drenching the area with trepidation. I tried not to think about how good it felt to be held by him or how nice it felt when his hot breath misted over my skin.

The atmosphere was…different somehow. It wasn't the same as it had been just before he had approached me. It was the kind of atmosphere that demanded silence and left everyone in it thinking deeply. I needed to get away from him. I couldn't deal with this, not now. He was going to be executed in a matter of days and I just wanted to forget about him. I needed to drive him away.

A question sprang to my lips, "Do you always use force to get the things you want?"

The fragile moment of what could have been was smashed like all the hopes and dreams of the Uchiha clan.

His hold on me loosened and I stepped free of it, not daring to look back at him. I bent down to pick up my bandages and began to wrap my chest with it, methodically. He was still there behind me; he must have known I was waiting for him to leave. I finished up with my bandages and secured them tightly, tighter than usual. My hands were trembling and I was praying that he wouldn't be able to see, that he would just leave me alone. I didn't want him there.

When he didn't so much as turn away to begin walking away, I began to spit at him hotly, "Itachi just-"

I didn't get very far though.

My jade green eyes welled up with tears that threatened to spill. I closed my eyes, trying to force back my tears and I felt Itachi's hand on the small of my back. He was supporting me as my knees buckled. I could almost hear him scoffing at how weak I was.

He was kissing me.

And then, as soon as it had begun, it was over. His dark cloak cracked like a whip as he turned away and walked back towards the campsite wordlessly. I turned my back on him, my eyes boiling with a bitter and anguished liquid. As the tears slipped down, I realized the kiss for what it really was.

It was his unspoken apology.

* * *

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

_The raindrops beat against my back as I trudged along. Samehada was so heavy now, it felt like it was trying to pull me down on purpose. Something inside me was telling me to drop it but Samehada and I had spent so long together, it was a part of me now. _

_I looked up and the buildings around me blurred in and out of focus. In each window, all the curtains were drawn and every door was locked and bolted. I could hear people laughing, screaming at me and I closed my eyes, ignoring them the best I could._

_I felt so tired, I just wanted to rest. I tripped and caught myself. I looked up at the road ahead of me, too tired to feel frustrated. The road went on forever. I didn't even know why I was following it but anything was better than staying here._

_I closed my eyes again. They closed for a little longer this time. _

_Everything about me was so tired. My movements, my thoughts, my breathing…_

_The rain was growing harder and harder. I raised my head to the dark sky and closed my eyes, allowing the rain to beat against my face. Someone was laughing behind me and I pulled out Samehada. It dragged me to the ground and I stumbled to the left with its unexpected weight. _

_I looked around, looking for the source of that damn laughter but there was no one there. Was my mind playing tricks on me?_

_The laughing returned again and I looked up, blinking as the rain fell into my eyes. It slid down my face in rivulets and something on top of one of the buildings was glowing. I couldn't see who it was and suddenly, everything seemed to freeze._

_Even though the rain had frozen, the water was still dripping down my face. I made no move to wipe it away because that would take energy and a will I didn't have._

_I still couldn't see the thing emitting the glow clearly. My eyes were thick and my vision was fuzzy. I took a step towards it._

"_**Are you looking for someone?"**__ It asked me._

_It sounded like I was hearing my own voice in my head, asking me that question. I took a step back from it, looking around me frantically. Everything had disappeared and I was left in a world of darkness. The glow was growing fainter, fainter._

"_**Or are you looking for something?"**_

_Pain. _

_Indescribable pain ripped through my body, it felt as though I was being pulled apart piece by piece. I coughed and fell to my knees, clinging onto the handle of Samehada. The sword made no sound as it smacked the floor in protest and everything seemed to be closing in on me. My eyes were still dripping with rainwater that was eternal in its falling. _

"_**Well it looks like you're always going to be looking**__."_

_I coughed again, the blood flew from my mouth splattered across my hands and the floor. I began to crawl, somewhere, anywhere, just to find a way out. Samehada clinked against something, a wall. _

_A blinding fear began to take over me. It chilled me to the bone and my entire body was becoming cold. I was going to die. I wasn't going to make it out of here. My breath was coming in shorter spurts and it all _hurt _so much._

_I began to bang against the wall in a frenzy. I was wordlessly screaming, yelling for someone to let me out, I _needed _to get out of here. _

_It was almost as if there was an explosion, but without the sound. A bright white light lit up the whole room and I was caught in the middle of it. I closed my eyes and felt the rainwater slip out again like tears. When the light had come to pass, I was staring at what once was the wall. _

_I was staring into my own face. I began to step away from the wall in horror._

_The rainwater wasn't rainwater._

_It was blood._

"_**Because you know, you're never going to find what you're searching for."**_

A crash of thunder outside brought me to my senses. The window of the room I had been staying in was wide open and the rain from outside made a loud 'pinging' noise each time it hit the thin windowsill.

I walked briskly towards the window and for the first time ever in my life, shut it abruptly. It closed with a bang that caused me to jump.

The thought, _"Stupid rain" _crossed my mind and the moment I thought that, an image of a blonde haired man jumped into my head. I scowled viciously and punched the window in anger. It broke with a loud crack and I cursed at my stupidity.

I leaned against the wall and slid down it, staring at the empty space in the room. I closed my eyes and felt the rain tap at my face questioningly.

"_I'll find her tomorrow."

* * *

_

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

Kisame hadn't gone to Akatsuki.

I knew this simply because he hadn't come back for me.

He was the one who knew every single unspoken rule of the Akatsuki. He probably knew best that we were a _group of individuals_. He knew that compassion and relationships would get you nowhere on the battlefield. He knew that he and I were merely acquaintances, nothing more and nothing less.

He was an idiot though. I had left him behind on missions countless times before, leaving him to run after me and appear at Akatsuki a day later regardless of his condition. I had made no effort to find a healer for his wounds unless he was vitally necessary to the mission and even so, I did that unwillingly.

But Kisame had this stupid sense of _loyalty_ about him. He was like a dog, I had kicked him twenty times over but he still wouldn't lose that unnerving loyalty. I had tried to drive it out of him countless times but to no avail. He would always come back for me if I disappeared halfway through a mission and would express great concern over my condition.

When I asked him why he always seemed to care, he had answered hastily, "If you end up dying, Akatsuki's going to be on my ass because you're Leader's favourite."

If he wasn't at Akatsuki, there was only one other place he could be. He was at Shirokami, looking for that blind prostitute again.

Three years ago, he had gone missing for a whole month and nobody had any idea where he was. Nobody really missed him except for me; I hadn't been able to conduct any further Kyuubi research without him. When he had come back, I didn't even ask him where he had gone. It was really none of my concern.

But then, one night he had gotten drunk and plastered and it had all spilled out of him. He had fallen in love with a girl, a _blind _prostitute, whose name he had kept to himself. I had sat there listening to him simply because I had nothing better to do at the time. He had told me that her blindness was a sickness that could be cured by a doctor, but she didn't have the money to afford it.

So he had spent most of his money on buying this girl her medicine. He had finished the rest of his money off buying drinks at the bar that night. He was really an idiot.

He had left before she could see again. He didn't give me a reason why but I had known the moment he said it.

He didn't want her to find out she had fallen in love with a monster.

* * *

_Next Chapter Preview__**: Kisame**_

"At least I'm not a sensitive idiot who cares about everyone."

'Yeah. I know.'

"_**You should know by now that I'm hypocritical."**_

"**I have until the end of today?"**

"_Ayame-san would be disappointed if she could see you now."_

"Hikari! No, don't-"

"_**Thank you."

* * *

**_

A/N: Hey guys, how's it going? I got some replies from you guys about really good stories and I swear, I LOVED THEM. And because you told me about these stories, you get super cool recognition.

Darkdemoness41791

Abby K

Hm, AznPuffyHair? You know that Naruto and Orochimaru story you were talking about? Do you mind telling me the title?

Anyways, I'm trying to speed up the updating process because of the upcoming summer holidays and the fact that exam week and my show are in the following weeks so I might not be able to update for a while.

And for those faithful people out there…Selandora has **decided to change the ending.**

**_Selandora (the undeniably sexy one you all must fear)_**


	11. Kisame

**Chapter 11: Kisame**

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

I'd be lying if I said that I didn't miss Kisame.

I'd also be lying if I said that I wish we'd never met.

But I wouldn't be lying if I said that things were probably better off this way.

I stared vacantly at my surroundings, seeing everything but not really taking it in. We had arrived at Shirokami and I was barely aware of it. Had I been awake enough, I would have noticed how dingy and beat up the place was or the beggars lining the streets. I was tired and had barely managed to sleep at all last night, even though Hinata was with me. The purple bags under my eyes were far too obvious. I had been asked twice already if I had gotten enough sleep last night, and I could barely keep my eyes open.

"You look like shit," A certain smooth, indifferent voice greeted me and I didn't need to look at its cruel owner to know who was speaking.

"Thanks for noticing," I snapped back at the stoic faced Uchiha. Sasuke shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets, walking along beside me soundlessly.

I hadn't noticed I had fallen so far behind the others until now. I could see Hinata somewhere in the middle far away from me, talking to Sakura and Ino quietly, dust clouds rising from behind their feet as they walked. A smile played at the corners of my lips but soon a huge yawn dominated my face. Sasuke looked at me with something akin to disgust but said nothing.

"So, how's your eye doing?" I asked him quietly.

We never talked about our eyes in public. It was an unspoken rule the both of us had and even when we did talk about it we spoke in whispers. It was an almost taboo subject and anyone else asking would probably have been crushed by Sasuke.

"It's fine," He replied sharply. His angry tone was more than enough warning for me to shut up and we both fell silent again.

"Hinata hasn't seen me mess around with mine yet. I haven't done anything in front of her yet, it'll probably scare the shit out of her," I chuckled half heartedly to myself and the corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched in amusement.

"It is disgusting," He agreed with me. I yawned again loudly.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sasuke asked me incredulously and I shrugged, running a hand through my unruly blonde locks.

I answered him with a lopsided smile, "I'm just tired. I didn't think you cared about anyone else but yourself."

He harrumphed and retorted, "At least I'm not a sensitive idiot who cares about everyone."

Although his comeback was intended as a joke, it made me wince painfully. I usually didn't let his smart aleck comments get to me but this time I was so tired to put up any sort of fight. I honestly didn't feel in the mood either.

As an image of a blue skinned criminal came to mind, I exhaled sharply in defeat.

"_Yeah, I know."

* * *

_

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

The copy-nin beside me was reading from a small orange book with a stop sign on the cover. He totally ignored me, his book demanded his total attention. I wondered what kind of a book could get even the copy-nin to stop everything else he was doing to simply read. I angled my head so that I was in a position where I could read the title of the book subtly.

'_Icha Icha Make Out Tactics?' _

I fought the compelling urge to raise my eyebrow. He was reading literary porn at a time like _this_? If they were attacked then he would be at a disadvantage. He would have to close the book, slip it into his pouch and pull out his kunai. That would take almost five seconds and in those five seconds he could be dead.

An unbidden memory jumped to mind suddenly.

"_**You're taking the ANBU entrance exam?" Shisui asked me in surprise and I nodded stonily. Shisui sighed and shook his head at me in exasperation. **_

"_**Honestly, I don't see why you want to grow up so fast. You have until you're twenty to register so why now?" He pressed me for answers. His hands were clasped behind his neck lazily and he glanced at me.**_

_**I answered his question with a comeback of my own, "Why did you register early then?" **_

_**Shisui broke into a wide smirk and punched me in the arm, "You should know by now that I'm hypocritical."**_

I scowled inwardly and buried down my memories of Shisui and Ayame as far down as I could. It was only recently I had begun thinking about them and it wasn't something I wanted to remember.

"Something bothering you?" The copy-nin suddenly questioned me and I refused to reply him, settling for staring straight ahead of me. He sighed and raised his headband to scratch at his scarred eye. I knew how irritating scars were, especially when the weather became colder and your skin grew dry. I had a habit of scratching at my eyes when I was alone.

The silence that fell between the two of us was tense. I could tell the silver haired nin wanted to say something but I ignored him. I listened to the footsteps we made as we walked slowly, almost _too _aware of my surroundings. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled but I was oblivious to the feeling.

"Don't start anything you're going to regret," Kakashi murmured to me quietly. My crimson gaze fixed on an empty, shady looking alleyway straight ahead of me and I fell silent for a few moments.

"I do not regret anything," I answered him flatly.

The copy-nin exhaled sharply in amusement, his navy mask crinkled as he smiled artificially. His only visible onyx eye was steeled over with coldness that looked so misplaced in such a ridiculous face.

He fixed his stern gaze upon me. "I know you don't. But she does."

* * *

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

_Today's the day._

I walked through the streets of Shirokami, keeping an eye peeled for anybody with blonde hair. My feet dragged across the floor reluctantly, my mind was wiling to find Hikari but my body voiced its silent protest.

I had a really bad feeling about today. It must have been the sun, it was far too bright for my liking. It cast a fake sense of joy over the scenes playing below it, happy or not, and it was a dampener on my mood. I squinted and pulled my bamboo labourer's hat further down my face. I had bought a new one walking around the marketplace and had scared the shop owner half to death in doing so. I strode through the busy crowds, ignoring the occasional cry of protest as I pushed into someone roughly every now and again. I only had one goal for today and that was to find Hikari. I had to find her.

_Maybe she'll know it's me._

I doubted it. She was probably expecting some knight in shining armour to sweep her off her feet. She was probably expecting someone dark haired, blue eyed and handsome to carry her up to her castle. I imagined her face when I strode to her doorstep in all my scaly glory and the corner of my mouth curved upwards in sadistic amusement.

Maybe if I blindfolded her, it wouldn't come as such a shock to her…if she remembered me anyways. Then again, maybe I should have blindfolded myself. That way I wouldn't have been able to see her reaction.

Despite all this, there was this nagging hope in the back of my mind telling me that she would accept me. It kept telling me that she loved me and that she cared for me as much as I did her, that love could withstand any obstacles. I snorted at the voice, _how cliché._

I didn't actually have any idea where I was going. I walked around aimlessly, unsure of where to start looking for her. I stopped in a sake bar and bought myself a drink. Itachi probably would have disapproved of it but he wasn't around anymore and never would be again I supposed. I sipped from the white porcelain saucer placed in front of me and heard the swish of fabric as a dark cloaked figure settled down to sit beside me.

The both of us sat in silence and I was sorely tempted to punch the person beside me through a wall and then trample over his shocked body. I had better cruel ideas but they had departed from me the moment I stepped into Shirokami. A deep male voice chuckled at me and a silver ring clinked on the wooden counter in front of me. A turquoise ring glinted in the light.

"What the fuck do you want from me now?" I demanded in exasperation and the man shrugged, the corner of his mouth quirking slightly.

A sake saucer was placed in front of him and he stared at it for a long time. His painted dark fingernails clicked against the porcelain and he lifted the sake to eye level. His face was reflected in the clear, alcoholic liquid. "I have to kill you by the end of today."

My throat clenched. Would I be able to find her in time? What happened if I missed her? He would kill me regardless of the situation I was in, I knew that. I stood no chance against him in a fight in my current condition. I had accepted my death already and no longer cared who it came from, Konoha or the Akatsuki. I couldn't explain things to him and hope he would understand. I had a question for him though.

"And Itachi?" I asked in a gruff undertone.

The man shrugged. "We like him too much to kill him. We'll let the Konoha rats do the job for us."

My foot began to tap against the floor, a steady thump-thumping. _Thump, thump, thump. _I asked again, "I have until the end of today?"

There was a quiet clack as the man put his saucer back on the table. The sake in it was untouched and a golden coin glistened beside it ominously. His cloak swished as he stood up and his fingers rolled slowly across the countertop as if in thought.

The rolling stopped. "Get it over with. She's in the richer part of town. She lives in a violet house with a huge fountain."

He left abruptly and I took a sip of my sake. The taste burned my throat and I put the saucer back on the counter again, leaning back against my barstool. I stood up and left the near empty sake bar, pulling my bamboo hat further down over my onyx eyes. My feet kicked up a small, unnoticeable dust cloud as I headed towards the richer part of town and made a silent, irritable observation.

_Damn, it's not raining today.

* * *

_

_**Haruno Sakura**_

We had all decided to stay in an inn for the night. It wasn't like we'd be attacked this close to Konoha and minus the fact that Itachi was with us, we looked like a gang of ordinary civilians. We had hidden all of our weapons and retired to our rooms for the afternoon. We only had a bit of time left to enjoy before we returned to Konoha and would inevitably be thrust into another mission.

I had a room to myself. Hinata and Naruto were sharing, as were Shikamaru and Ino. Kakashi and Itachi _had _to share anyways and Sasuke was all alone as well. I had considered asking him if he wanted to share but thought better of it. I'd probably end up embarrassing myself anyways.

Kakashi had asked me to help him carry some of his stupid books and I took them out of my carry bag, wrinkling my nose as I touched them. His room was just down the hallway and I crept along the hallway like an unwanted burglar. Something about Shirokami seemed so dangerous that I needed to sneak around everywhere to remain unnoticed and safe.

"You know where he is, don't you?" Naruto's voice pierced through the rice paper sliding screens and I jumped in surprise. I realized his voice was coming from inside of Kakashi's room and pressed myself against one of the walls, eavesdropping on his conversation.

"Where is he?" Naruto demanded, his voice as sharp as a knife. I shuddered unconsciously at the terrifying tone of his usually bright voice. There was a loud sigh after a long time and a creaking of wood as someone sat down.

"Look, I'm not going to tell anyone. I just want to know where he is so I can help him out, he- he was my good friend," Naruto's voice took on a pleading note.

Silence.

"Itachi, please, I'm begging you." There was more creaking of wood and a shuffling of feet. "Tell me where he is, I need to- I _have _to help him…"

"The ninja of Konoha are still as irresponsible as they used to be. Abandoning common sense for silly ideas like love and friendship," Itachi voice was dead but held a slight trace of scorn in it. Naruto was silent and I could hear Kakashi's snores faintly in the background.

Naruto murmured something very quietly, something I missed. I cursed inwardly and drew closer to the door, listening more intently.

"He has something precious to him in this village. It was his _Hikari _and he found it in a violet house three years ago," Itachi murmured enigmatically.

Naruto's feet made a racket as he shot up and sprinted for the door without looking back. I ran back to my room quickly so that they wouldn't see me and hid behind one of the sliding screens. I managed to hide inside my room just as Naruto exited from Kakashi's.

I sighed, my heart thudding against my ribcage with the sudden thrill of the moment. I walked over to my table, strapping weapons to my legs and stuffed a couple of scrolls into my back pouch. The door rolled open and I stepped out of the room, my feet thumped on the floor quietly.

I didn't know Kisame very well but I sure as hell wasn't going to let him kill Naruto.

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

"Why did you tell Naruto that?" Kakashi's voice held a suspicious tone to it. I kept my back turned to him and remained silent.

"Uchiha-san, I'm simply afraid you must tell me because Naruto is my special student," He explained in a light hearted but utterly fake tone.

_Attachments are unnecessary. I simply _cannot _fathom why these people have so many of them…_

"One such as I would not disclose such information to a person like you," I told him flatly and Kakashi's onyx eye narrowed slightly. With that one movement, he was like a whole new person. I wouldn't be surprised if this man had killed a whole clan too.

Without a word, the copy-nin stood up abruptly. The rolling door slid open quietly and I walked behind him, staying as far away from him as my cursed bond would allow me. As we passed Sakura's room, I noticed that the door was open a fraction as if she had been spying on us. My eyes flickered to the gap and found that she wasn't inside.

"Uchiha-san," he began, but his speech faltered. He stopped and shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked like he was going to say something.

His words were almost reluctant as he continued in an undertone, "Ayame-san would be disappointed if she could see you now."

He set off again, refusing to look back at me. Long black strands of hair covered my face from view like a convenient wall, as my hair tie had been taken away by Kakashi. He took many more precautions than Sakura ever did and now my hair served as an onyx curtain, shielding my face unwillingly from the rest of the world.

My crimson eyes flickered bitterly for a moment before steeling themselves over with a disciplined coldness. The corners of my mouth tightened and the taut skin of my scars strained.

_It's not possible for me to disappoint Ayame-san. She only had eyes for Shisui.

* * *

_

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

For the first time in two years, I saw her again. Time stood still for me, a doomed ninja. My mind was bursting with so many questions and I could see her now, laughing as she helped the ladies beside her fold clothes. I could hear her laugh, infectious and always from the heart, and smiled.

I leaned against the tree and blended in as best as I could with the shadows. I had to wait until she was alone before I could talk to her. It would create complications if anybody else saw me with her.

The sky was bleeding red, orange and yellow, showering the world below it golden with its last life. The light had begun to retreat for the day. I swallowed as I realized that it would be the last sunset I would ever see.

--

I began to give up all hope that she'd ever be alone and lost sight of what I was really supposed to be doing. I watched her intently, as if I tore my eyes away from her for even the quickest second, she would be gone. She disappeared for a few seconds and the loud, startling creak of the double wooden garden doors resounded in my ears as they swung open.

I pressed myself as flat as I could against the tree. My heart was pounding in my ears and I stole a glance at the person who had entered my private hiding spot. I already knew who it was.

She was breathtaking in a pure white. I looked at her eyes, trying to figure out what colour they were underneath the paleness I had been so accustomed to. I always knew her eyes would be blue and they were. They sparkled a hopeful, crystalline blue.

"_**I would look for you."**_

She was drawing closer to me. Should I have gone? Should I have stayed where I was? I wouldn't approach her yet. It was too soon.

God, I could smell her now. She even smelled the same, an exotic jasmine, and it had never failed to make me lower my defences. I was never on guard when I was around her. She was a bewitching woman.

There was something so safe about being around her. It was as if the world around her were brighter wherever she stepped, as if the sun itself were protecting her with its golden light. I wanted to reach out and touch her, she was so close…

Her name slipped from my lips in a coarse whisper, "Hikari…"

Damn it! She had heard me!

"H-Hello?" She asked tentatively, stepping cautiously around the garden. She looked like she was about to bolt for the doors any second now.

It was painful looking at her. She was right beneath me and I felt my heart lurch sickeningly as I stared at her. I averted my onyx eyes from her, feeling unworthy to even look at a person of so much beauty. She was so beautiful and I…I was…

"Is anyone there?" her voice wavered slightly.

She was heading towards the tree I was hidden in now. I remained as silent as possible, not daring to move for fear that she might see me. I wanted to speak to her but…

_Don't look up, whatever happens, just don't look up_.

But she did.

She opened her mouth to scream and I jumped off of my branch, trying to grab at her before any sound could come out. It was too late though, she was screaming now, a high pitched terrified scream that would have alerted everyone in the house I was there. She was running for the door now and I ran after her.

"No, Hikari, stop!" I yelled and she continued screaming. I lunged for her and she fell to the ground, her white dress tearing with a loud rip as she fell. She was screaming rape now and every scream wrought more pain within me.

I could see the sky getting darker and knew I didn't have enough time. I had to tell her, I couldn't let it end like this, I couldn't- "Hikari, don't scream. God damn it, don't do this-"

"Hikari, I'm the mercenary from three years ago," I tried to explain to her but she shook her head, her mouth forming intangible screams. The tears streaming down her face were marring her perfection and she was so scared, she was so fucking scared-

"Get off of me! You're not anyone I know, you- you _monster_!"

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

I saw him freeze from where he was atop of the girl and she took that opportune moment to scramble away and scream for more help. I wanted to go interfere and help him but Kakashi held me back, covering my mouth and stifling all sound. Damn it, I couldn't let this girl do this to Kisame! I couldn't, she was killing him-

I could hear footsteps now coming from inside the house. Oh God no, they were going to kill him, he was going to be dead in a few moments, not Kisame, please God no-

There was a man shouting now, "Hikari! Hikari!" urgently from inside. I screamed and struggled against Kakashi. Sakura had to help hold me back, I needed to help Kisame. He was going to die and I wouldn't be able to do anything, I couldn't help at all-

Kisame wasn't moving. What the hell was he doing? Couldn't he see that he was going to die? That stupid idiot, why the hell didn't he move? Why wasn't he moving-

"Hikari," He choked out a name in a broken voice.

"Hikari," He repeated her name again. No, men were running out of the house now, I could see four pairs of swords glinting in the light and four different weapon pouches-

I threw off Kakashi and Sakura, running for my life towards Kisame. I couldn't let them kill him, not Kisame, not again, I couldn't lose another person-

Kisame raised his head to the sky, his eyes closed. I was screaming his name now, telling him to run, but he wasn't listening. The men were closer to him than I was and I ran faster, faster, trying to beat time, trying to save him.

A whisper rang through the garden, Kisame's voice. "I found you."

A tiny white bird flew down from the sky and perched itself upon Kisame's shoulder. I knew that bird and I knew what was going to happen, I was screaming his name now louder, louder. I needed more chakra to run, I wasn't going fast enough, I could feel the blood weeping from my feet but I didn't care anymore.

_Kisame! Kisame, you fucking retard, don't do this to me-_

I was close now, almost close enough to rip that bird off his shoulder. I was screaming his name, yelling his name. I reached for the bird but he didn't even look at me, he was staring up at the sky. Kisame's eyes opened slowly and water streaked down his face unwillingly, his own raindrops of sorrow.

He reached out his arms, a tired smile on his face. "Thank you."

There was a bang and a warm liquid splattered across my face. I screamed his name.

"**Kisame!"**

**

* * *

**

**Next Chapter: Resolve's End**

"I told you not to get attached."

**_"It's alright man, I'm here."_**

"Konoha is foolish for encouraging friendship."

_"He was...human."_

**"Sakura-chan...you love him, right?"**

**

* * *

**

**A/N**:  
This is why I had massive writer's block. This chapter was just so depressing to write and even though I didn't do much with Kisame and Naruto they were still so much fun to write. I honestly don't know where to lead the story next but I know I definitely have to build on Sakura and Itachi's relationship because I haven't sorted that out yet.

I like Kisame's death better here than in the old one, though I really miss the part with Itachi and the genjutsu. It was just so hard to incorporate that idea into this though cause Kisame's death is from Naruto's point of view and all. A bit more of the whole Itachi/Shisui/Ayame thing is coming in from now on though I'm not sure if I should save up some of it for the sequel...

MAN I want to write the sequel so badly but I've got to finish this!

selandora


	12. Foolish Attachments

**Chapter 12: Resolve's End**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

They were arguing now, I could hear the both of them.

"Just don't show Naruto the body. It'll be troublesome if we have an unstable ninja with us," Shikamaru warned.

"Why don't we just bury the body here? It'll be easier for all of us and if Hokage-sama asks we can just tell her it's here," Kakashi drawled lazily and Shikamaru sighed.

"It _would _be easier if we buried it here, but there are rules that say all dead ninja must be returned to their own country. So, we'll need to bring it to Konoha and from there a representative of Mist can pick it up," Shikamaru explained in annoyance and I could almost imagine Kakashi's shrug.

He reasoned, "If a representative of Mist shows up, they're more likely to burn the body the moment they leave Konoha rather than return it to Mist."

I left their room. I didn't want to hear anymore.

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

It wasn't him. It couldn't be him.

"_**Shut up, blondie!"**_

It wasn't him underneath the white sheet. It wasn't his blue, lifeless hand poked out from under a pathetic cover.

I buried my face in my calloused hands, trembling. No matter how hard I tried to convince myself it wasn't him shrouded in a death sheet, the harder reality smacked me across the face. It had to be him.

I half expected him to rear up and yell at me, to protest against his death. But when I remembered how accepting he had been of his doom, how he had simply sat there as the bird fluttered down to rest on his shoulder…

_He must have known_.

She had run screaming from him. His most precious person, the person he had loved above everyone else in the world, had called him a monster and run away. She had done this all just before he had died.

_I had lunged for her; I had tried to kill her when I saw her. She was everything he didn't deserve, an evil heartless bitch who lived in her own imagination. I had screamed at her, screamed at her that it was her fault that Kisame was dead and she had started crying. _

_Why the hell was she crying now? She should have been crying when he died, she should have been crying when he had accepted his death so calmly!_

_She started shrieking that she didn't know him, that she had never seen him before in her life and then Itachi had intervened. All eyes were on him, he had never spoken unless he absolutely had to. For a moment, he looked angry but I must have imagined it because when I blinked, his face was a stone slab once again._

_Itachi's voice was laced with disgust, "You loved him when you were blind but the moment you laid your eyes on him, you condemned him to his own death."_

"_**Condemned him to his own death…"**_

I reached over to the sheet with a shaking hand. No, no, _no_, Kisame wasn't dead…he couldn't be dead…

"I told you not to get attached to him," Kakashi's soft voice murmured from the entrance of the room. I didn't turn around to see him, I didn't want to see his face. I didn't need his words, not now.

"You're going to suffer from now on Naruto, you'll kill yourself from the inside knowing that you could have saved him if you were a second faster," He continued.

My hand gripped the white cloth tightly, my teeth gritting. I could hear his footsteps in the background as he approached me quietly. "You're going to have to live knowing that if only you had been a better ninja, he wouldn't be dead."

"I know, alright! I was wrong and I didn't listen to you, but **fuck off!** You were right in the end Kakashi, you must be so fucking happy that I was wrong," I yelled at him, tears streaming freely down my face.

I felt a hand touch my shoulder. A transparent, hopeless liquid dripped onto the floor, marking the wood with its temporary sorrow.

"I just didn't want to see you go through the same thing I had to."

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

I waited outside while the copy-nin spoke to his distraught student inside the corpse's room. I could hear the sounds of loud cries and even louder denials. I closed my tired eyes and sighed quietly.

He was and always had been an idiot. He was never meant to be a part of the Akatsuki. He could never truly master ridding himself totally of his emotions but liked to pretend he could. He had been so foolish.

He must have guessed that she would return to him with open arms and accept him for what he was, what he looked like. He must have supposed she would be in love with him, that they could both run away together and live a life on their own without hindrances.

He must have supposed that she loved him as much as he loved her.

There were so many fools like him, so many people who thought that they would get their happily ever after. There were so many people who thought that love could overcome all obstacles. They were all fools.

I had seen too many of them.

"_**So, what's this thing your dad wants you to get?" Shisui asked me, a hint of annoyance evident in his voice. We had broken into Uchiha Madara's tomb, because that was where we would find what I had been told to retrieve.**_

_**The flashlight Shisui held was the only light so far down here. It was actually mine but his had died out the moment we stepped into the tomb, so I gave him mine. It made sense since he was the one walking in front of me. The tomb had a long never ending, narrow tunnel and we could only walk one in front of the other.**_

"_**It's an ancient scroll with a Sharingan on it," I replied him. The tomb was crawling with bugs of every different size and shape. I wanted to get the damn scroll then get out as soon as possible.**_

"_**You'd think somebody might come over and clean out the old geezer's tomb every now and again," He murmured dryly, stopping every now and again to crush the occasional cockroach into oblivion.**_

_**I hummed in agreement. We fell into what I had thought was a comfortable silence and what Shisui had thought was an awkward one. Shisui spoke again, "You know, I'm going to propose to Ayame in a week."**_

_**My blood ran cold at his comment. I said nothing for a while and then commented casually, "Bit early."**_

_**Shisui shrugged, forgetting that I could only make out his dim outline. The happiness was evident in his voice when he said, "Well, I like her. And she likes me. She's just special."**_

_**I was quiet and said nothing. I agreed that Ayame was special but…I chose not to voice my own opinions. If Shisui proposed to Ayame and she said yes then I wouldn't interfere. It would be out of my hands by then, though I suspected it already was.**_

_**I had been wrapped up in my own thoughts but it hadn't escaped my notice that the tunnel was gradually getting larger. Shisui and I could now stand side by side and talk. I chose to linger behind him so that I didn't accidentally trip on something and make myself look like an idiot. I would leave that to Shisui.**_

_**Shisui stopped and whistled loudly. He was obviously impressed with what he saw. "Man Itachi, this guy had serious money."**_

_**He stepped aside to let me see.**_

_**There was a marble altar on which a large white marble casket was fitted into. A likeness, of whom we guessed must have been Uchiha Madara, had been carved into the top of the casket though his features were worn by age. Four unlit lanterns were hung around it and the place was about the size of my room. I approached the lanterns and lit them with blue fiery chakra, casting an ethereal glow on the area.**_

_**Shisui turned off his flashlight and slipped it into his back pocket. He approached the casket and looked around with his hands on his hips. He scanned the room and told me, "There's no scroll here."**_

_**I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him. "It's inside the casket."**_

_**His eyes bugged out and he glanced at the gloomy entrance doubtfully. You could ask a ninja to steal from a pitch black mansion with twenty or so elite guards surrounding it and they wouldn't bat an eyelid. Ask a ninja to do something like steal from the dead and it was a whole other story.**_

_**I ignored Shisui and walked briskly towards the stone coffin. Shisui looked like he was going to stop me but with a forceful push and a lot of chakra, the lid was off. It crashed to the floor with a dull thud and Shisui jumped, as if the thud was the warning of the dead not to retrieve the scroll. A cloud of dust rose from the upturned lid and surrounded the open coffin, a last and feeble attempt to throw us off our task. When the dust had cleared, my eyes scanned the coffin for the evasive scroll. I almost staggered backwards a step.**_

_**I tried to tear my eyes away from the coffin. It felt as though I was under a genjutsu but unlike other genjutsus, it was inescapable. **_

_**There was something other than the body of Uchiha Madara in his coffin. **_

_**My stomach wanted to retch but my self control told me to stay where I was. The floor underneath my feet was sticky and I could feel something warm seeping through my shoes. I took a step back, hearing my shoes squelch disgustingly beneath me.**_

_**I looked down and resisted the urge to jump. There was blood all over the floor and inside of his coffin, it seemed to be drowning the corpse. The body had floated to the surface but his skin was streaked a pinkish red with what I thought was his own blood. His body was perfectly intact but his eyes…**_

_**There were none. They were empty, bloody holes that gaped up at the ceiling.**_

"_**Itachi, I found the scroll," Shisui called to me and I nodded, his words not really registering. **_

_**I didn't even turn to look at him but instead activated my own Sharingan. The coffin began to shake violently and I steadied myself, reaching for my sleek black katana. A hand rose out of the coffin, a desperate bloodied hand and instantly I knew it to be an illusion. My sharingan wheels whirred in an attempt to see through it and as more and more of Uchiha Madara's body rose out of the coffin, they spun faster and faster.**_

"_**Hey man, are you alright?" Shisui asked me uncertainly. **_

_**Shisui wasn't trapped under the genjutsu, it was just me. I realized it was because I had looked inside the coffin and he hadn't. **_

_**My sharingan was failing and the illusion didn't go away. I raised my stiff arms and hands to form a seal, the very effort of doing that one thing made my veins bulge out with the extreme work. I whispered in an urgent undertone, 'Kai!'**_

_**What was once Uchiha Madara turned its body to look at me with a pair of unseeing, bloodied eye holes. I whispered the release incantation over and over again, trying to claw my way out of this nightmare made real. I took a step back and I slipped on the edge of the raised floor, falling with a heavy crash onto the marble floor. Shisui ran over to me. To my subconscious disgust, I was trembling and gasping with fear.**_

_**I knew I could stop this genjustsu but it was as though my chakra channels were too far out of reach. It was as if I had lost what control I had over my body and to stop and restart my chakra channels at a rapid speed was far out of my hands by this point. I could hear Shisui yelling my name, his tone growing gradually more and more urgent as I began to spasm sporadically like a dying cockroach. I gripped at his dark shirt, scrambling away from the embodiment of my terror.**_

_**I caught sight of a pale cream scroll with a malevolent Sharingan painted onto it. It began spinning gradually, dizzying in its hypnotic rotation. I reached out for it and touched it, only to begin breathing heavily as a sharp pain ripped through my eyes. I began clawing at my eyes, trying to stop the pain and was barely conscious of the blood trickling down from my left eye.**_

"_**Shi-Shisui," I gasped out his name unconsciously. **_

_**His hand closed tightly over my upper arm, his knuckles white. He was biting his lip and swearing in frustration at his own helplessness. His sharingan eyes were glazed over with angry tears and he wiped them away with his arm quickly. **_

"_**It's alright man, I'm here," I heard him try to reassure me weakly and I looked up at him with wide eyes.**_

_**My breath caught in my throat as I looked up at him. I tried to close my eyes but couldn't and tried to scream. My mouth opened and closed like a fish but no sound came out.**_

_**A gaping open wound opened in his neck, blood dripping down the pale skin and staining it a garish red. I reached up to touch it, to warn him he was dying, but he took no notice. Rivulets of blood trickled down from the corners of his mouth.**_

_**I could see his death.**_

My eyes narrowed unconsciously and I passed a fleeting hand over my face. For every memory I remembered I felt five years older than I was. I leaned heavily against the wooden wall. I ran a course finger over the scar underneath my left eye cautiously, as if it were to open again and bleed.

I heard the screen door beside me open quietly. Out of the corner of my eye, a head of spiky grey hair caught my attention. The door was closed carefully behind him with a soft roll. He let out an almost inaudible sigh and raised his eye patch to rub at his bloodshot Sharingan eye.

He turned his head to look at me unabashedly. I ignored his piercing look, staring blankly ahead of me. His mismatched eyes took in my face cautiously, as if he were looking for some hint of emotion in its recesses. I could hear the Kyuubi's quiet sobs from inside of the room. His figure cast a shadow on the rice paper sliding door, a pathetic, hunched over man.

"Konoha is foolish for encouraging friendship," I stated offhandedly, for once feeling a bit more talkative than usual.

Kakashi smiled a tired smile. "You're probably right."

* * *

_**Haruno Sakura**_

Was this what it would be like when Itachi died?

Would it be a time of choking silence, of badly concealed sorrow and of traitorous tears?

Or would it be a time of relief and detachment? A time where we could all say, "Well, I'm glad that's over. What's the next mission?"

The reason everyone was so quiet and contemplative was not because all of us had known Kisame well. Had it been any other day, no one other than Naruto and Hinata would have cared about Kisame's death.

It was the way he died that hurt us the most.

We were all ninjas, just like him. His death brought to life the reality that one day we could die alone, just like Kisame did.

The second thing was that…it was Naruto, _Naruto_, who was mourning his death. The sun kissed ball of energy, always ready with a confident smile and a loud proclamation of his greatness. When Naruto was sad, it was as if someone had dampened the days to come or had thrown a cloth over the sun and hidden away the light. It was heartbreaking to watch.

I stared up at the ceiling with an arm slung over my face, my eyes watery with thought. My mind drifted back to Itachi and I swallowed down the lump forming in the back of my throat.

When somebody else lost something precious to them, it made you realize what was truly precious to you.

I wanted to see Itachi again. I didn't care if he ended up killing me or beating me, I just wanted to see him again. I wanted to speak to him and have a random conversation about aluminium cans, or something! To hell with Shikamaru and Kakashi, he was a human and I was the only one who seemed to notice.

"Sakura-chan?"

I jumped at the sound of my name. For a moment, I thought that just _maybe_ it was Itachi. Then I realized that it would be a cold day in hell when he called me Sakura-_chan_.

"Come in, the door's open," I called, sitting up in my bed. The sliding screen rolled open as a tall, blonde man shuffled into the room.

Naruto raised his head slightly to look at me through his bangs. He had been crying, his right eye was puffy and his voice sounded like he hadn't spoken in weeks. He hesitated and stopped where he was, unsure of whether he should approach me or not. I watched him, feeling my own eyes well up with tears once again.

I spread my arms wide open for him. There were no words between us.

He fell to his knees in front of me and hugged me around the waist, resting his tired face against my stomach. I made no move to push him away and began to stroke his golden hair soothingly.

There was a strangled sound in the back of his throat as he tried to hold back his tears. "Kisame…he…he was…"

His entire body suddenly began to shiver as he buried his face in my shirt, pulling me closer. My shirt was growing damp with his tears but I didn't complain.

"He was _human_."

His hands clenched at my shirt.

"You know that, right? Sakura-chan?" He begged me.

He knew I was the only one who would understand. He needed my comfort; he needed to know that someone else felt the way he was feeling.

"You and Itachi…you know, right?" His voice was barely a whisper.

His eyes looked up at me imploringly and my eyes had widened for a split second. How did he know? Did anyone else know? Was I a traitor? I…

"Naruto-" I began but my voice gave out on me, giving way to a strained breath.

I brushed angrily at my eyes, mad at my weakness. I was stronger than this, I wouldn't let Itachi get to me…I wouldn't…

"Sakura-chan…you love him, right?" He pleaded with me. His eyes told me he already knew the answer but he needed to hear it from me.

My tears burned my eyes as they struggled to come free, fighting against what little resolve I still had left. I could that resolve drifting away from me now, like sand floating away on a wave. There was so much to fight against, so many feelings to bottle, so many truths to bury and I was just so tired of it all.

I put my arms around Naruto's neck and hid my face there. I didn't want anyone else to know that he was right, I didn't want anyone else to know that I…that I…

That I understood.

"I love him, Naruto."

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

The ANBU squad captain had been a fool. He hadn't realized that the copy-nin and I had a room right beside Sakura's. He also hadn't realized that the rooms had interconnecting screens, so I would be able to slip through the door and 'kill' Sakura. If the copy-nin knew, he didn't let on.

I could hear someone crying in her room. The copy-nin was fast asleep so there was no annoying conversation or the slow turn of a page to hinder my ears. I could hear the muffled conversation she was having through the screen. I had been sitting with my back to the screen long before they had begun and I hadn't intended to listen in. It was impossible for me not to listen anyways, they were both so loud.

"…_human…you know that, right Sakura-chan?" _A male voice, the Kyuubi's voice, asked her.

My crimson eyes narrowed. What was that _boy_ doing in there with her alone?

I opened the screen door slightly to let a slight draft in. _Or so you say_, a voice in the back of my head nagged at me. I ignored it and looked through the screen to get a look at what they were doing.

Something in my stomach tightened as I stared at the two of them. I was scarcely aware of the glare I directed at the Kyuubi boy. The two of them were embracing each other intimately, his face buried in her stomach. What was his face doing _there_? He had no right to touch _my _Sakura-

"You and Itachi…you know, right?" The boy continued and I grew more suspicious of the conversation as my name was mentioned. What would they be talking about me for?

And, why the hell did I care all of a sudden?

I watched Sakura's face, waiting for her answer. She swallowed and her hand paused where it was atop of the boy's head. I silently approved of this; she wasn't stroking his hair anymore. She didn't look like she would answer and it reminded me of how weak she was. She let a question defeat her.

"Naruto-" She began in a strangled voice.

Her arm rose to brush at her eyes feebly and as she drew it away I saw the liquid staining her arm. I had seen many women cry and most of them looked awful when they did it, their eyes grew blotchy and they collapsed into a helpless fit. Sakura didn't look at all horrendous when she cried and even though I knew there was a word for it, I chose not to use it.

_Beautiful, huh? _The voice nagged at me again. I made no move to neither agree nor disagree with it.

"Sakura-chan…you love him, right?"

I closed the door. I had no wish to hear the answer to that question.

"Stop spying on the girls, you naughty boy," A familiar, tenor voice chastised me. I closed my eyes and fought the urge to dig myself into a hole six feet under.

"You are annoying," I told the voice flat out and there was a quiet chuckle of amusement.

"Glad to see that captivity hasn't changed you a bit, yeah," The man commented.

Our voices were both low so that nobody would hear us. I opened my eyes to glare coldly at Deidara and he smirked at me. He made to approach me but thought better of it, lingering on the window sill to stare at me. It was a wise move; I probably would have hit him had he come any closer.

"Where's fish breath?" He asked, glancing around the room. His gaze fell upon the sleeping copy-nin, his lip curling upwards in disgust, before looking back at me.

"He's two rooms down," I informed him.

Deidara didn't look like he was leaving any time soon though. He sat down and I almost groaned. However, as his green eyes took on a mature quality, I decided that perhaps it would be alright for him to stay.

"I'm not a blind idiot, Itachi-san. I saw what you did for Salmon-chan, yeah. You're too nice, you know that?" he told me in an annoyed tone, scratching absentmindedly at one of his palms.

"You're the last person I should hear that from Deidara. You could have killed him earlier," I snapped back coldly and Deidara grinned.

"Well, you know, it wouldn't have mattered what time I killed him. He was going to die by the end of that day anyways, yeah," He defended himself smoothly.

I rolled my eyes.

Deidara suddenly laughed and I looked at him, a quizzical eyebrow raised. His laughter was loud but I made no move to tell him to keep it down; it was his fault if he got caught.

"What the hell was that? You've never rolled your eyes at me before, yeah. Not that I'm complaining, it's better than having you glare at me all the time, yeah," He commented, amusement lighting up his emerald eyes.

"You should leave and get Kisame now," I told him through gritted teeth.

He harrumphed and turned around, his cloak swirling about him as he did so. "I was almost going to help you escape, yeah. But since you want me gone, forget it. Ja."

His words hadn't affected me. He wouldn't have helped me even if I launched into I Feel Pretty and danced around like an idiot. Leader had given us all strict orders not to help out our fellow member unless you were partners. It was a sick sort of trust, he trusted us to be able to get out of any situation and if we didn't, oh well. He would let us retrieve the bodies of the others though. The Akatsuki rings didn't come cheap.

I rolled my eyes at Deidara's behaviour but stopped myself, my eyes narrowing.

* * *

_**Hoshikagi Kisame**_

"_You're drunk, Kisame," He told me blatantly, staring at me through cold crimson eyes. I laughed loudly and stumbled as the earth shifted to the left, my vision blurring. _

_My face lit up sickeningly with a half hearted grin as my words slurred, "Sso what?"_

_He folded his arms and hid his pale hands in the black billowing sleeves of his cloak. I knew better than to lean on him for support, he would probably stab me through the back with his katana before I actually got the chance. Anyways, I wouldn't have known which one to lean on…there were so many of him…_

_It began raining and I looked up at the midnight sky, squinting as the raindrops fell into my onyx eyes. The stars twinkled down at me, clear despite the clouds that inevitably followed the rain. I reach a hand up to the stars that looked so much like Hikari and staggered to the right, catching my balance in the nick of time._

_I looked around to find Itachi and saw him walking briskly ahead of me, obviously fed up with my drunken state. He wasn't one with much patience. _

"_Hey, Itachi," I called his name and tried running after him. _

_My feet didn't seem to follow and I found myself having to regain my balance more than once. I laughed at the thought of walking along a tightrope now; I'd probably fall to my death. Though, I supposed it was a better death than the probable mutilation some ninjas favoured. _

"_I know you think I'm pathetic," I called after him, having given up on catching up with him. Itachi made no move to show that he agreed or disagreed with me, if anything his pace quickened._

"_But you know, there's this saying in the Mist," I continued, "That if you die on a rainy day then you're one of the luckiest bastards alive."_

_I knew he was listening, he always was. Even if I spouted complete nonsense, he always listened until it became ridiculous and he told me to shut up. He and I had this messed up sort of partnership but neither of us dared to use the word friend._

"_They tell you raindrops are heaven's tears so you've got all these damn angels crying for you," I laughed at that. _

_I stared up at the sky, suddenly sober. The stars were suddenly hidden by the storm clouds and there was a loud crash of thunder as the rain began to beat against our backs. "Wouldn't that be nice, huh? To know there's at least one person up there crying for you."_

"I found you," I whispered. Maybe she would hear me, maybe she would remember…

I could see Deidara's bird now; it was funny how it even looked like a dove. I hated this, I spent the last week of my life looking for a girl who didn't even love me and it wasn't even fucking raining. I felt so pathetic and supposed that maybe Deidara was doing me a favour. The white bird landed on my shoulder and rubbed its head against my neck almost soothingly.

"Ne, Salmon-chan, don't hold this against me, yeah?" I could hear Deidara's voice and almost laughed. It was the closest thing to an apology I would get from Deidara.

I looked up, looking for him. I caught sight of a black cloak atop the roof but it was the wrong person. I kept my gaze upon him anyways, his crimson gaze cold and impassive as usual. I stared at him because it was all I could do with the last of my will slipping away.

His eyes began to whir, a confusing pattern of red and black.

It started raining.

I could hear someone screaming my name behind me but it didn't matter anymore.

"Thank you," I whispered. I didn't know who I was thanking anymore, two faces flashed in my mind. I smiled at the irony; I was thanking the two people who had made my life a living hell.

I could hear the thunder rolling in the distance and loved the sight of the grey swollen rain clouds above me, feeling the rain caress my face. I was laughing, smiling even, as I could feel the rain soak through my coat. The wind whistled a soothing sonata to me, ripping through my clothes and purging me of all my sins, of all the regret-

"**Kisame!"**

**

* * *

**

**A/N:  
**Hooey, guess who's back? Exam week is over so I've reached a freedom...of a sort. The catch is now, I have to do over 27 shows this June and I will be really tired so don't expect any updates from me. Uhh...speaking of the show, I should be heading to the theatre in two minutes...

What can I say about this chapter? The ending of this one is the original end of Kisame's death scene in his real execution in the last story (don't know if you guys remember that or not). I really wanted to bring it in but it was really difficult to fix it up and I'm still not that happy with it. Sakura's finally confessed her love for Itachi to herself and Itachi is gradually growing attached to her. Deidara's role isn't really significant but he'll become a lot more important in the sequel. I love the Akatsuki.

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear)**


	13. Defining Evil

_**Hokage Tsunade**_

There was paper. No, there were paper**s**. Papers scattered on the floor, papers in towering piles around me, papers that dominated the room and made me want to burn all of them, burn, burn, _burn-_

I resisted the urge to scream and instead settled for grinding my teeth in frustration. The hard wooden table I could whack my head against was looking extremely tempting at the moment. I stood up, deciding that it was impossible to work in such a stuffy atmosphere, and the paper towers on my desk wobbled as my chair shrieked across the floor in warning.

I froze mid-step. My intent eyes followed their movements hypnotically, the blood pounding in my ears.

_Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall, I swear if you fall I'm going to destroy this office, don't fall-_

I sighed deeply in relief as the paper towers settled. I didn't think I could take it if the papers had fallen _again_. It had taken me more than six hours to fix up the mess last time and I didn't have Shizune or Sakura around to clean up after me.

"Tsunade-sama!" A voice screamed from down the hallway and my head cracked like a whip to the left.

"Tsunade-sama!" The voice called again and I could feel the floor shaking under my feet. My hazel eyes snapped to the trembling pieces of paper.

The door slammed open and hit the wall with a bang.

The rustles of falling paper were lost amidst the roar. "**Shizune!**"

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

My crimson gaze began to drift slowly from side to side. Silence hung over the air like an impending fog, trapping everyone in its seductive embrace. The atmosphere was tense and with every twig snapped or every leaf that crunched underfoot; everyone in the vicinity jumped. Well almost everyone jumped; I was far too experienced in things like this to take a single twig snap seriously unless it came from someone other than my partner.

_My partner…huh?_

My eyes strayed to the two quiet figures up ahead. I could see them murmuring in an undertone so as not to let anyone hear and my eyes narrowed in suspicion. However, I quickly brushed aside the foolish caution as something invisible tugged at my entire being impatiently. I was forced to speed up my pace and glared at the grey haired copy-nin who continued reading his pornography innocently. He stopped beside a nervous looking young woman who stared after one of the two solitary ninjas up ahead, the blonde haired Kyuubi.

"Hinata-chan," the copy-nin called her name in barely a whisper.

Even though he said her name quietly, she looked extremely shocked. It was as if he had screamed or blasted a foghorn intro her ear. She began twiddling her fingers nervously and stuttered, "Y-Yes, Hatake-san?"

His mask creased slightly as he smiled. His eye closed into a crescent moon shape with the one movement and he asked her, "Hinata-chan, is it okay if we walk beside you?"

The girl's opaque eyes shot to my imposing, dark profile and then back to the copy-nin's smiling face. For a moment she seemed unsure but her answer was definite, "It's fine, Kakashi-sempai."

We walked on in silence and the Hyuuga kept her eyes to the ground most of the time. However, as the copy-nin and I came to realize, she kept looking at Sakura and Naruto up front. She seemed to be quite agitated in her own nervous little way and it began to grate against my nerves.

When she looked up for the eighth time, Kakashi had finally had enough. "Hinata-chan…why do you keep looking at Naruto and Sakura-chan?"

She blushed a deep red and looked at her toes as she walked. She remained silent and embarrassed; she made no move to defend her pride. I certainly wasn't impressed with this Hyuuga and the proud face of Hyuuga Hizashi jumped to mind. I shook my head slightly to rid myself of the image.

"Sakura-chan would never take Naruto from you. They've been best friends for a long time now and they understand each other very well," He murmured to her.

"I know-" The girl interjected but the copy-nin held up a hand to silence her.

He finished, "Naruto's having a really hard time and so is Sakura-chan. At the moment, they both really need one another. Just…give them this time together."

* * *

_**Haruno Sakura**_

The two of us walked close together, shoulders brushing unintentionally every now and again in an accidental form of comfort. The whiskers on his face stretched taut across his face with the absence of a usually ever present smile and his cerulean eyes were clouded over with a glaze of defeat.

"Naruto, what are you going to do when we get back to Konoha? Tsunade-sama probably won't give us another mission for a while so…" I murmured to him and he shrugged, staring at the path ahead of him stonily.

"I guess I'll just go home and sleep for a while. I just want to forget about everything for a bit," He answered quietly. A silence fell over the both of us once again and my hand twitched impatiently as the overwhelming need to hug him threatened to overcome me.

Flashes of Konoha appeared in my mind and instead of joy and happiness at returning home, I could only feel a sickening sense of dread. Everything about it began to terrify me, the harmless play set in the academy, the tall impending Hokage tower. It all seemed to spell out the reality that was hurtling towards us at a speed I could no longer keep up with and I needed it to stop. I needed to get off this chaotic ride and pause time for the next few years to make more memories, to find a way to hide Itachi from Konoha.

If I could have gone back in time, I could have stopped all of this from happening. I could have found a way to sabotage the retrieval mission, I could have walked away from Itachi, I could have found a way to make Kakashi stay with Itachi from the start; I could have done so much.

"It's kind of funny, Naruto," I told him, plastering a fake smile onto my face. Sai would have been proud, had it not been for the trembling of my hands.

I thought of home and could only think of the burning ANBU hideout. I thought of my bed and could only see the hard wooden windowsill Itachi slept on. I thought of towels and remembered the cupboard in my room, I thought of clouds and could only see the darkness of Itachi's cape, I thought of soda cans and thought of the random question game, I thought of water and I could only remember the first time I had to shower awkwardly with him right outside my door. I thought of the people waiting for me back in Konoha and could only be filled with a detached emptiness as a beautiful face jumped into my mind.

"I don't- I don't want to go home," I whispered to him, keeping my voice quiet. It was as if, if I spoke any louder then I would be telling the world a horrible secret. I clutched the cloth of my pants in a feeble attempt to stop my shaking.

And then I stopped where I stood.

"No…I'm scared of going home," I realized aloud.

"I'm so scared of going home, Naruto…because….because…" The words slipped away like water before I could say them. I tried to speak, tried to say something, but speech had flown from me in a moment of utmost fear. If I said it, I would be sealing the future.

I was scarcely aware of the silvery tears coursing down my face until Naruto stepped closer to me and drew me into his open arms. I hid my face in his chest, gasping for breath.

"He's going to be-"

"Shut up, Sakura," He hissed at me angrily.

He pulled me closer to him. His large, calloused hands began to run through my pink locks methodically in a feeble attempt to calm me down. We were stopped in the middle of the path, clinging to each other helplessly because in this world of indifference and prejudice we were the only ones who seemed to understand each other. We were the only ones who seemed to understand that these criminals were human…

"Are you okay, Sakura-san?" I could hear Shikamaru's voice somewhere from behind me. I opened my mouth to answer but Naruto answered the question before I could. I was grateful for that; I don't think I would have been able to answer his question anyways.

"I'll take care of this. Go ahead towards Konoha and we'll follow afterwards," Naruto ordered Shikamaru, his leadership qualities shining through radiantly. Shikamaru hesitated and then nodded once uncertainly, jerking his head towards the direction Konoha was in.

I lifted my head to watch them leave through tearstained eyes. Ino mouthed something to me and smiled encouragingly before turning around to catch up with Shikamaru. A nervous smile wobbled on Hinata's face and Kakashi stared at me for a few moments before walking off.

A figure dressed in a long black, red and white cloak lingered behind for the longest. His hard crimson eyes bore into mine for a long time and I stared helplessly back into his. His eyelids fluttered shut for a few seconds and then slowly lifted upwards.

His onyx eyes were cold and endless, like a bottomless pit. It was almost as if, if you dropped a pebble of emotion into those depths; it would keep falling, falling and you'd watch and wait for the moment it finally hit something, only to realize that it never would. His left eye was gradually becoming a milky white, giving off a slightly marbled texture that seemed harder than diamond. I realized he was going blind in one eye.

He closed his eyes slowly and deliberately. When he opened them again, they were replaced with the ruby red colour I had become so accustomed to.

There was something so intimate about that single revelation. Even as he walked away, I felt as though he had let me in on something so secret, something so _private_ that nobody else had ever seen before.

It made me clutch Naruto all the more tightly.

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

My vision was blurred slightly and I tried to focus on one point to help it readjust. The large gates of Konoha served that purpose more than well enough and I stared at the wearing leaf symbol carved tirelessly above the gigantic double doors. I blinked once, twice, my vision wavering each time, until eventually it settled.

I rubbed at the scars underneath my eyes methodically and lowered my hands. The copy-nin was staring at me again and I resisted the urge to glare back. I would not sink to so low a level that I would be forced to resort to something eight year old children did.

"Those scars must get pretty annoying," Kakashi commented off-handedly.

I ignored him, content for the moment to simply listen to the sound of shoes as they scuffed the dirt and the quiet breathing of the ninja around me. The Kyuubi boy and Sakura hadn't yet caught up with us and I noticed the atmosphere had changed dramatically over the past few days. I wanted to scoff at how foolish these ninja were, they allowed their emotions to take over and allowed themselves to be affected by others'.

The gigantic gates of Konoha graced my crimson eyes and I almost stopped for a moment. The wearing proud characters atop the wooden doors were fading with time and the paint was beginning to peel from the doors. I remembered a time when they looked near pristine and had seemed to be the only thing holding me in. Something unexpectedly rushed throughout my body, a wave of warmth, before fleeing again to leave me cold and with an uncertain lump in my throat. I swallowed consciously and fought the urge to shiver, just to rid myself of the unwelcome feeling.

The slightest of tugs made me step forwards involuntarily and for a moment, I thought about perhaps breaking loose of these people and running away. However, I realized how ridiculous the idea was and decided that I would much rather retain my pride than attempt a fruitless escape. I noticed the copy-nin glancing back behind us every so often to check if his students were there. From his stony expression that remained every time his head turned, I gathered that they were nowhere near us.

"Ah! Shikamaru-san, it's good to see you guys again-" A dark spiky haired man ran to greet us but his speech stopped the moment he set eyes on me. He hesitated, his dark eyes darting from side to side nervously and then plastered a smile back onto his face.

"It's good to see you too, Raidou-san," The ANBU captain drawled lazily, the corners of his lips dragging upwards in a slow smile.

"As nice as it is to see you, we've got to get going to the Hokage tower. Ja ne, Raidou-san!" The blonde girl dragged on the leader's arm, who took a reluctant step forwards to steady himself.

"Maa…you know, I could just take Itachi there myself and hand in the mission report," Kakashi suggested and time seemed to stand still as every head turned warily to face him.

He blinked once, twice. "…what?"

The world seemed to reanimate with his question and the ANBU squad leader handed over everyone's mission report. It was custom for the squad leader to hand in all the mission reports together but seeing as the copy-nin was taking temporary leadership, no one was complaining. He took them and began to walk away briskly. I followed after him, ignoring the astounded faces we left in our wake.

Faces blurred into one another as the children or relatives of people I had known long ago stared at me as I passed by. The copy-nin was unaffected by their staring, as was I, but the whispers followed us wherever we went. I was, for once, at a loss at what to think or say as Konoha embraced me whether I wanted it to or not.

The streets were full of memories and the air whispered long forgotten secrets to me. I shut my eyes for a little longer and remembered the old Konoha, the Konoha I grew up in. When my eyelids gradually lifted, I found that it was almost the same. I could almost hear Shisui groaning about something or rather and could almost smell the ramen of Ichiraku as Ayame smiled and laughed with Shisui over the rough wooden counter. I still couldn't count the number of striped marquees that lined the street and heard the shouting of hawkers and gossips about me.

The dust swirled about my feet as I walked and fell to the floor lifelessly behind me. The hot sun became near unbearable in my black cloak and a piercing wind blew past me; an unpleasant mix of burning hot and icy cold. The people seemed to melt away before my eyes and the only other person that seemed to register in my tired mind was the stone faced copy-nin I was following.

It felt as though I had taken everything with me when I had left Konoha. I had taken all my memories and valuables with me. There was no one precious to me waiting in Konoha, there was no one whose opinion mattered anymore. I had packed my imaginary box and left with it tucked underneath my shoulder to leave behind a vacant room that no longer held any meaning to me.

Konoha had become my empty past.

* * *

"So, you're Uchiha Itachi," The blonde haired Hokage glanced at me for a moment. She then leaned back in her chair and sighed tiredly. Her hand rose to pinch the bridge of her nose and she closed her brown eyes for a few moments to calm herself. 

I made no move to confirm my identity. The copy-nin beside me said nothing either and her hazel eyes flashed open. "Alright, Hatake-san you are dismissed. Where's my apprentice?"

"Naruto collapsed from fatigue and Sakura told us to go ahead so she could look after him. She should be here in a little bit," He lied smoothly without batting even an eyelid. The Hokage nodded in gullible understanding.

A tense silence shrouded the room and finally the copy-nin broke it by asking, "Well…if that's it Tsunade-sama…"

She jerked to life and nodded, waving him off with a pale manicured hand. He handed over the restrictor and although it was the perfect opportunity for me to kill the Hokage and the copy-nin, I found there was no purpose behind it anymore. The Hokage pulled the necklace over her blonde head and I felt the familiar magnetic pull of it overwhelm me again. It was a feeling I had become used to, but it angered me slightly that I was becoming accustomed to captivity.

"Ja," He murmured before disappearing in a puff of smoke. The same awkward silence from before fell over the room and I stared at her quietly. I noticed quietly that her features weren't all together clear and I couldn't make out if the purple mark on her forehead was from a pen or if it was a tattoo.

She bent down to finish writing her paperwork and I continued watching her for the next hour or so. She eventually grew so annoyed that she looked up at me and shot me a dirty look. "Look here boy, I'm about forty years your senior so don't even think about it."

If I had been anyone else, I would have jumped up out of my seat and shouted my protest and then retched. As it was, a wave of disgust washed over me and I grew angry that she would suggest that I would…that I would do such a thing. The woman flattered herself too much and out of pride and a slightly bruised ego I averted my eyes from her face.

She threw down her pen and let out a quiet comment of frustration. Her chair screeched beneath her as she pushed it out to walk over to the glaring window behind her. She tapped on the glass contemplatively and then returned to her chair, letting out a sigh.

"Where is that girl?" She grumbled in annoyance and then pulled out a white porcelain sake bottle from within one of her drawers. She took a long gulp and I stared at her once again, watching as she slowly succumbed to drunkenness.

When she turned an unhealthy shade of green, she yanked off the necklace and fled the room to the bathroom. My eyes fell upon the papers that had been scattered around the room. I squinted, trying to make out the characters written on the deceiving whiteness, but quickly resigned to the fact that my eyesight was certainly going. I moulded chakra to my eyes and the script became clear as I began to read through it. The sun had set and the lights of Konoha twinkled up at me from where I sat. The streets were a blur of colour and activity and the moon smiled calmly down upon the people below. The fine hairs on my neck prickled when I heard light and slightly muffled footsteps from outside the Hokage's office an hour later.

The door opened with a creak. A woman's voice timidly asked, "Shishou?"

I turned to look at the person standing at the entrance. Time found a way of sneaking about unnoticed and hesitated mid-step for the both of us.

* * *

Next chapter preview:

"Itachi, for fuck's sake, stop acting like a child!"

"Well that means you and I should get to know each other better, yeah."

"How do you know there isn't a reason?"

"Sakura, do you want to see Itachi again?"

**"Your execution is tomorrow."**

* * *

A/N:  
Yeah, I didn't think I'd be posting either but I've had this huge writing overload and just had to get all this stuff out. The end is coming guys! THE END IS COMING!

There's a lot of confuzzling stuff that has yet to be explained, like the three day time limit at the beginning, Deidara's random appearances, Itachi's execution, Naruto's missing eye and the reason why Itachi didn't overpower Sakura even though he's had loads of opportunities to do so. Aand, what about the Uchiha massacre and Shisui? And the Mangekyou Sharingan? Itachi's past will slowly unravel itself but you'll have to wait until the sequel comes out for all of this super cool stuff. (Thanks go to Goatis for pointing this all out to me)

**selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you must fear)**


	14. Trickling Water

**Chapter 14: Trickling Water**

_**Haruno Sakura**_

His blood red eyes held mine. It felt as though a pair of invisible hands had reached out and gently kept me in place. I opened my mouth to say something but the words had fled from me, leaving a foreboding silence to reign over the room. It felt as though something awful was going to happen. Maybe he would smack me or maybe I would start yelling at him. Or maybe Tsunade-sama would wake up and scream at the both of us and have Itachi executed on the spot.

What I didn't expect was something perfectly normal to happen. He merely looked away from me without a word. Strangely enough, that dismissive gesture hurt me much more than any argument ever would.

When I made no move to leave, Itachi's head rose slightly. It was still turned away from me, as if he were avoiding my eyes, and his long onyx hair cascaded down his pale neck. He spoke quietly, "There isn't any point in your presence here since your teacher isn't here. Leave."

I had half a mind to blatantly refuse and stay put. The other reasonable half of my mind told me to follow his orders and leave, so as to prevent any complicated and awkward confrontation. Unfortunately, I pulled a Naruto and listened to the crazier side of me.

"I can't go. I have to hand in my mission report," I protested, my voice sounding more confident than I felt.

"Then leave it on the desk and go," He quietly ordered.

"I can't do that, you could sabotage it," I pointed out.

His jaw clenched slightly at the accusation and he retorted sharply, "Then hand it in tomorrow."

I never did have much patience and it waned quickly. I forgot about everything that had come to pass in the past few days. For a few moments, things reverted back to how they used to be when it was just me and an infuriating Uchiha. "Itachi, for fuck's sake, stop acting like a child!"

"Don't go telling people what to do when you can't even follow your own advice," His pride retaliated. It was the closest to angry I supposed I'd ever see him but I was madder than he was and it failed to faze me.

"If you could see past that stupid Uchiha pride of yours then you would realize that you're the hypocrite, you heartless bastard!" My voice began to rise.

The loud screech of his chair silenced me immediately.

For a moment I was filled with a blinding fear that reminded me of our first encounter in a forest a few months ago. The restrictor necklace glinting on the floor beside my foot didn't go unnoticed and I became fully aware of how easy it was for this man to reach out and break my neck. His back was turned to me and his body was still. His silence spoke a thousand words; a thousand words that managed to escape me.

He appeared suddenly two centimetres away from my face and I backed up against the wall instinctively. His crimson eyes burned a hole into my emerald ones as both of his hands slammed against the wall beside my head. I could have moved or thrown him off but my body no longer paid attention to rational thought. I could feel my eyes brimming up with angry tears, my actions had been rash but they had gotten me the desired result. I wanted him to notice me, to realize that I wasn't dead and that I was still here. He had totally ignored me for the past few days and I missed him. I was angry and frustrated and I wanted him to feel all of that too.

A tear slipped down my face, unbidden, but I continued glaring at him. He said not a word to me and his nightmarish crimson eyes simmered quietly. His right hand clenched and immediately unclenched again as he tried to retain what little self control he had left. I would just have to say one more thing and he would be thrown off the edge.

Time passed agonizingly slowly and each second seemed to draw out for an eternity. The blood pounded in my ears as my heartbeat seemed to race and beat like a drum. _Thud…thud…thud…_

My hands were suddenly in his midnight hair, trying desperately to bring him closer as a war ensued within our mouths. His hands were under my clothes and it felt as though my entire being was on fire as his body pressed against mine. I gasped as his tongue traced a path down my neck and he pinned me to the wall, his hands roaming wildly. His mouth returned to mine once again and I let out a strangled moan in between his feverish kisses. We were both struggling for breath but neither of us really cared anymore. I whispered his name breathlessly and suddenly, the world collectively held its breath. He stopped and drew back, his eyes reflecting for the first time an inner conflict as he hesitated.

He closed his eyes, his chest heaving slightly. His indecision fled in the next instant. His voice was as sharp as a cutting edge, "Leave."

There was no need for him to say it twice. I all but ran for the door. I couldn't stand to be near him anymore. The heavy wooden door closed with a distinctive click and it felt as though I had locked my tortured heart away along with the S class criminal. The light from the surrounding windows fell upon my feet as I walked away from him, my face shrouded in shadows.

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

I sat back down in the wooden chair, staring aimlessly at a blank piece of wall. As the wispy clouds rolled over the moon, the light shifted across my face like a lover's caress. I felt as though I were twenty years older and, in a rare moment of vulnerability, leaned forwards and covered my eyes with my palms.

For a few seconds, I removed the Mangekyou Sharingan. Everything became unfocussed and the colours blurred. Frustration took a temporary hold on me as everything on my left was lost to blackness, only to be quickly replaced by bodily relief. My chakra channels seemed to sigh in joy as my eyes were given a chance to relax at long last.

I remained still for a few moments, trying to pull myself together. The dam that had once held my emotions back so effortlessly was beginning to crack and feelings were starting to trickle through again. I could hear the endless echo in my mind, '_Emotions make you weak, emotions make you vulnerable' _but for once in my life the words lost the importance they once held.

I could still feel the warmth of her curvaceous body pressed up against my own and pictured the angry gloss of her emerald eyes. Her challenge had angered me much more than it should have but before I had never let something as petty as _anger _get the best of me. I convinced myself that it was only out of pride that I kissed her but another quiet voice in the back of my mind nagged otherwise. I leaned back in the chair, ignoring the creak of protest it made.

The door opened behind me and I briefly wondered if it was Sakura. I then realized it couldn't be Sakura, this person's footsteps seemed to drag across the floor drunkenly and I could hear the quiet clink of stilettos. I instantly activated my Sharingan again before the person could notice my black eyes and pulled on a mask of indifference. The busty blonde Hokage collapsed into her chair behind the wooden table and sighed loudly.

A silence fell over the room. Suddenly, her eyes snapped to mine angrily as she demanded, "Will you _stop_ staring at me?"

Instinctively, I shot back, "I wasn't."

"I'm sure you weren't. Your eyes just happened to travel down to my chest," She growled at me threateningly.

If I were Deidara, I would have slapped my forehead about now. No, actually, Deidara would have smirked suggestively and then said something especially crude. The urge to punch this woman was quickly growing.

"You are nothing special. I have seen other women before," I told her coldly and she slammed her hands down on the desk. She brought her face a mere centimetre away from mine, unfocussed hazel eyes flaring. I could smell the sake on her breath.

"Do you mean to say I'm ugly?" She asked, her eyes narrowing.

I decided to keep quiet to avoid any more confrontation with this unstable Hokage. She took my silence the wrong way and her teeth began to grind against one another. I leaned back as far as the chair would allow me without making it obvious and looked away from her, fixing my gaze on the window behind her.

"You are not to talk to the Hokage in that manner!" She shouted at me.

"I said nothing to you," I pointed out, steadily growing more and more annoyed. She stood up suddenly, her chair screaming on the floor behind her.

"Don't talk back to the Hokage!" She shouted again and I closed my eyes, feeling a headache coming on.

* * *

_**Haruno Sakura**_

The still waters of the river glimmered in the moonlight as the fish slept peacefully. The bridge was growing old and the red paint was starting to peel again, no matter how many times we painted it over in a vain attempt to cling to the memories of Team 7. The railing creaked under my weight as I leaned on it and my ears revelled in the calm silence. I sighed breathily, the loudest sound in the area.

"Such a sad sound isn't befitting for such a pretty face, yeah," A low, seductive voice murmured from behind me.

I turned around quickly. A man with long blonde hair stood across from me, watching me through piercing green eyes. His lips twitched into a self confident smirk and he put his hands into his pockets. His back was against the railing. At a glance, I thought he was a civilian but then I remembered he had made not a sound to announce his presence. I hadn't been able to detect him at all.

"Pretty my ass," I scoffed, looking back at the river.

"Yours isn't half bad actually," He commented offhandedly and my head whizzed back around to gape at him.

He took a few steps towards me and pressed his hands against the railing at either side of me. A calloused finger began to trace the contours of my face and he gently closed my mouth. I began to lean backwards to get as far away from him as possible and moved too far back. I began to fall over the railing of the bridge and I grabbed his shirt in a futile attempt to retain my balance. Unfortunately, he too began to lose his balance and we both went toppling over the edge of the bridge into the icy waters.

I hit the surface with a muffled splash. The river was relatively shallow and I stood up, my clothes sopping wet. I turned around to look for the blonde man and he was standing on the water's glimmering skin with a smirk on his face. It confirmed my suspicion that he was a ninja and I began to twist my bubblegum hair to get the water out of it.

"Nice body," The man's eyes roamed over my clinging clothes and my eyes quickly narrowed at him. As nice as all this praise was, he was a complete stranger.

"If you're trying to get in my pants, get lost," I growled at him as I waded out of the river, walking rigidly.

He quickly walked to my side and said, "I'm not trying to get into anything. I've just got unfinished business in Konoha…yeah."

"Then go and finish your business, _yeah_," I snapped and he stepped in front of me to prevent me from leaving. His sea foam eyes captured mine and I stopped, putting my hands on my hips threateningly.

He complained, "That would be no fun though. A guy needs a holiday every once in a while, yeah?"

"Then go have your holiday somewhere else!" I shouted.

His smirk widened. "I want to talk to you though."

"You don't even _know _me," I told him and he slung an arm around my shoulder amiably. His face was mere centimetres away from my own and his soft blonde hair gently caressed my shoulder.

He countered, "Well, that means that you and I should get to know each other better, yeah?"

"No!" I began to grow agitated and he sighed, removing his arm from around my shoulder. He reached into the pouch at his side and a sound began to come from inside of it, a munching sound. When he took his hand out of it, he opened it and threw something white into the air.

"It's a present for you. Don't break it, yeah?" He told me. Quick as a flash, he kissed me on the cheek and disappeared with a poof.

The white figure floated down towards me and landed on my shoulder. I looked at it questioningly and a tiny little bird stared back innocently.

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

The next morning, the Hokage slammed a porcelain sake saucer down on the table in front of me. The fragile skin glittered in the dim sunlight like a diamond and I raised my head to look at her questioningly. She stared back, her chocolate orbs hardened like flint, before sinking into her solid wooden chair. I stared at the sake cup suspiciously, as if it were to rear up and spit whatever poison was in it into my mouth, effectively murdering me.

Her pen scratched away noisily on the tortured pieces of paper. The scratching noise stopped after a few minutes and there was a quiet clink as she put down her ball pen to watch me quietly.

"You can drink it, boy. We wouldn't try to hurt you since you're going to die in a couple of days anyways," She told me, slightly amused by my caution.

I still made no move to touch it but my tense muscles slackened slightly. However, I didn't take kindly to my new nickname but who was I to speak back to the Hokage? After what seemed an eternity, she looked up at me and leaned her cheek against her hand lazily. She commented, "You know, you could go on trial instead of going straight to execution ground. You might be able to live if you prove yourself innocent."

I answered analytically, "When all the evidence points at me and there was even a witness to the killing, it is impossible for me to prove myself innocent."

"You're a bit of a disappointment, you know that? I was expecting some more attitude or hatred from a missing-nin but you're still the same logical, cynical kid from more than ten years ago," She admitted, sipping at her sake.

She waved a hand about flamboyantly, "You're probably wondering how I know that. I was the third Hokage's student, you know, so I saw everyone who came in for missions. You came in the most and you pissed me off with your adult demeanour. You still do, actually."

"If I am that much of an annoyance to you, why don't you kill me now rather than have a formal execution?" I pointed out to her and her eyes lowered to her papers as she began to scribble away again.

Her hand unconsciously tightened around her pen. "Every citizen of Konoha deserves a respectable death; even if they are missing-nin or criminals."

I told her blatantly, "If you truly believe that, then you are the ideal Kage for a place like Konoha."

* * *

Three days since I had come into the Hokage's supervision, her black haired assistant entered with a manila file clenched in her bloodless hands, as if whatever was in it disgusted her to no end. The Hokage took it from her and opened it, spreading its contents over the desk and scanned over them. My eyes travelled across the pages and I sent the little reserves of chakra I still had to focus my eyesight so that the characters didn't appear as black blurs.

_Name: Uchiha Itachi_

_ANBU team assigned: Captain- Haruko Toshiro, Uzumaki Naruto, Hijiri Tsumon, Shiranui Genma_

_Holding cell: Number 15_

"You and I have a few things to discuss," Tsunade noted aloud, leaning back in her chair. My eyes flicked up to her face to grace her with my attention.

"Your execution is tomorrow. You will be taken to a holding cell and your chakra channels will be blocked off. Tomorrow morning at nine o clock you will be taken to the execution room and a person specially trained in painless killing techniques will kill you," She informed me in a manner that suggested she might as well have been saying she was going out to get some milk from the supermarket.

"You will be under 24 hour watch by ANBU class ninja so escape is impossible," The Hokage added. She seemed to think that such information would faze me, or terrify me in the least, but I honestly didn't care. I nodded slightly to acknowledge this.

There was a loud knock on the door that prevented her from saying anything else. She barked at the people behind it to enter and four uniformed ANBU officers entered. I knew instantly which one was the Kyuubi by simply picking out his confident walk and cerulean eyes. The other three ninja were silent but I noted mentally that one of them wore a silver stud in one ear and walked before everyone else. He was obviously the leader.

"None of you are to talk to the prisoner. Am I understood?" The Hokage ordered, her eyes lingering on the Kyuubi for a fraction of a second longer than the others.

The man with a silver stud nodded and answered for his team, "Understood."

They all nodded and surrounded me in a tight circle. I walked with them without complaint, a contemplative curtain of onyx falling over my eyes. Had the guards been looking at me, they would not have been able to notice the triumphant gleam in my crimson eyes as we grew further and further away from my previous jail cell.

* * *

_**Haruno Sakura**_

"Naruto, what are you doing here so late?" I chastised him as he sat down on my threadbare red sofa. He looked as though hell had chewed him up and then spat him back out again, only to drag him through purgatory before chucking him back to earth.

He said nothing for a few moments, his eyes glassy and unfocussed. His uncanny silence frightened me slightly so I went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. I shook him slightly, trying to fish a reaction out of him. His palm snaked up to grasp at my wrist as his eyes pierced through mine with uncharacteristic seriousness.

"Naruto?" My jade eyes flickered to my wrist quickly before darting up to meet his gaze again.

"Sakura, do you want to see Itachi again?"

Naruto's shift was in the next ten minutes and to be safe, I wasn't to come until after his shift had started and the coast was clear. The execution blocks and holding cells were all hidden deep in the Forest of Death. The place still sent shivers down my spine and caused bad memories to resurface but I was willing to go back in if it meant I would be able to see Itachi one last time.

The prospect of seeing him again both scared me and thrilled me at the same time. I had no idea what I was going to say to him or how we would react after our heated encounter last time. I didn't know what I was doing but I realized that when dealing with Itachi, most of the time you had to let things happen. Planning out a relationship or meeting with Itachi would never get anyone anywhere.

"Sakura, come," Naruto's voice was quiet but commanding as the earpiece hummed slightly in my ear. The little white bird on my shoulder clung to me tightly as I traced a path through the tall trees towards the execution block. It made not a noise as I sprinted.

"Don't come through the main entrance. Walk around until you see a window with a black cloak slung over the windowsill. It should be on the second floor," He informed me quietly.

I stayed far enough from the building so that nobody could notice me but close enough to allow me a clear view. I trod carefully, circling the building until I finally found the window he had mentioned. His black cloak billowed slightly in the wind and I stared up at it.

"Jump up to the window," He ordered me.

"Are you crazy? I can't jump _into_ a window! I can jump really high but I can't aim myself into anything. Why can't I just scale the walls, or something?" I began to babble anxiously but Naruto shushed me.

"If you climb the walls with chakra, the person permanently standing guard at the main entrance will know. His chakra is stretched across the entire building so if he senses a strange disturbance of his chakra flow he'll alert an ANBU team," Naruto explained and I groaned inwardly, staring up at the window.

"Won't he be able to sense me anyways if there's a second body of chakra in the building?" I pressed him further.

"No, he won't. It's like…if you do something suspicious, like explode a wall or carve a hole in the floor with chakra it'll make a ripple in his chakra," He answered coolly.

_So that means if I use healing techniques, it won't alert the guard because my chakra isn't interrupting his flow. It's going into another person and not into the other man's chakra flow. _I realized.

"Okay, fine, I'm coming," I muttered. Taking a few steps back to get a running start, I nervously wiped my sweaty palms on my shorts. I began to sprint, jade eyes focused on the open window and forced chakra to my feet. I sprung off the ground and into the air, hurtling towards the window.

"_Oh shit, how the hell am I going to land?_" a new, terrifying question came to mind. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for a painful impact but instead smacked into a heavy wall of muscle. Naruto didn't even flinch as I crashed into him, gripping my arms tightly to steady me. The white bird fluttered through the window calmly and landed on my shoulder again, nuzzling its inner-wing.

"When I knock on the door, you have to leave him and jump out of the window without using any chakra. You should know how to land a fall by now," He flashed me a quick grin as he began unlocking a metal door behind him. The words 'Number 15' were written in a cold, businesslike script that seemed extremely detached.

I took in my surroundings and likened the place to a very depressing hospital. I was standing in a long narrow hallway with only a few doors and two windows. Rectangular ceiling lights lit up the path but the light above our heads flickered on and off eerily. The unsettling light didn't do much for my already crumbling resolve.

There was a loud click as Naruto finally got the door open. I froze, half expecting a squadron of ANBU to race down the hallway and pin us to the floor. It was only after Naruto shoved me inside Itachi's cell that I realized the squadron never came. The room was dark but I could make out a dim figure sitting on the floor. When Naruto closed the door, we were left in pitch darkness.

"Itachi?" I called his name quietly. There was a rustle of clothing as the figure stood up. I didn't have to see his face to know he was staring at me intently. The white bird on my shoulder deserted my shoulder and fluttered off somewhere in the darkness, its tiny wings providing the only escape from silence.

"It's me…Sakura," I took a step towards him. He said nothing and I began to walk towards him with more confidence.

"Are you here under orders?" He asked tonelessly.

"No, I'm not," I answered.

"Then why did you come?" He asked again, taking a step closer to me. I could feel the tickle of his long black hair and the body heat radiating off of him. He was so close now and I could hear his steady breathing, _inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale_…

"I…I don't know," I lied to him, instinctively swaying closer. A stormy silence reigned over the cell and I pressed my hands against his chest as if to measure the distance between us. I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my face and trace a path down my neck to rest in its hollow.

My hands travelled up his body to rest on his cheeks. My fingertips brushed the scars below his eyes and I felt his eyelashes bat against my hand. His eyelids had closed and I gently allowed a trickle of chakra to seep through the pale skin. I noted that his chakra channels had collapsed inwards on themselves, probably from overexertion, and began to open them up again. They were already very fragile and I knew that what little healing I had done would be undone if he was to use his Sharingan again.

"You should be able to see really faintly out of your left eye when I'm done but you'll still have bad eyesight. If you use the Sharingan again you'll go blind in that eye again and the right one will eventually suffer the same problem," I murmured quietly.

"How long will it last?" He inquired calmly.

"One month at the most, without Sharingan. If I had more time to work on you, I could get it back to normal," I said, looking away from him.

"My execution is tomorrow," He stated and my head snapped up to look at him in disbelief. My chakra temporarily came to a stop.

"I…I didn't know," I whispered in shock.

He said nothing to comfort me and nothing to make me feel worse. He simply let the words he had said earlier further sink into me. My motif for coming and whatever happiness was still left in me dropped like a stone off the side of a cliff. They were so far gone that I couldn't even reach them anymore.

My eyes began to glaze over and I bit down ferociously on my lip. I was glad for the lack of light; he wouldn't be able to see my weakness and point out how unfit I was as a ninja. Tears trickled down my face like silent spectators. They witnessed my sorrow and accused Itachi of things beyond his own control, finding courage in the lack of visibility. He lifted his hands and pressed against my fingertips softly, an indication to keep healing. His action registered somewhere in the back of my mind but faded away into nothingness.

He murmured my name, "Sakura."

His voice crushed me like a landslide, forcing me back to reality. I blinked rapidly and tried to keep my breathing under control so as not to betray anything to him. I took my hands away from his eyes and they flopped to my sides as I tried to absorb what he had just told me. I swore that I could see his eyes in the darkness, two onyx orbs that had seen too much too fast; the unmistakable eyes of a ninja.

His hand brushed the side of my face and I shied away from it, knowing that he would feel the rivulets of sadness trickling down my skin if he touched me. He persisted until his calloused palm finally held my wet cheek and I stood, motionless, knowing I had lost.

"There is no need for you to cry. Crying is a display of weakness," He commented coldly. His hand remained where it was, cupping my cheek.

"You idiot, can't you see I'm crying for you?" I snapped at him angrily. He said nothing in response.

His lips pressed against mine gently and there was no enormous sexual tension or rage like last time. There was so much more meaning behind this, a meaning that trickled through my fingers the more I tried to decipher it. I wanted to cling to the moment forever, to freeze time for the both of us but an urgent interruption brought the both of us back to reality.

There was a knock at the door and it opened a fraction. I quickly stepped away from Itachi and his hands fell to his sides. It was almost as if nothing had come to pass between us but, feeling his intense gaze upon me as I left, we both knew something had.

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

Sakura flashed me a smile that would have made Sai proud when she finally came out of the room. As she brushed past me, I touched her shoulder and shot her a questioning look. She shook her head to say there was nothing wrong but I frowned at her in disbelief.

"Wait for me outside. I'll be out in a few seconds," I told her quietly before she jumped through the open window.

We were lucky she left just in time since the shinobi who was to take the next shift entered the hallway a few moments later. I grinned and tossed him the keys to Itachi's cell, "You'll have an easy time, Haruko-san. He doesn't do anything at all and just sits there all the time. It's like he's accepted the execution."

Our squad captain sighed in relief, "That's good, I don't feel up to fending off a crazy guy."

"I'll see you later," I told him and left the building swiftly, nodding to the guard on duty outside.

I found Sakura leaning lazily against a gnarly tree, blankly staring into space. I cleared my throat slightly to let her know I was there and she started, looking around her in fright. When her jaded eyes rested upon me, she relaxed considerably.

"How'd it go?" I asked her in a murmur. It felt as though if I spoke any louder the whole world would hear.

She hesitated before answering weakly, "It was fine."

It was an obvious lie and we both knew it.

It was simply a matter of time before she broke down. The seconds ticked by painfully but I waited. I saw her swallow with difficulty, watched her eyes glaze over and avoid mine. She took an uncertain step towards me, then another and then another until we were mere centimetres apart. She stared at my chest, her jaw clenching with the effort not to cry.

She was absolutely silent. I continued to wait.

When her traitorous gasp broke the silence, I embraced her tightly. My arms locked around her and I kept her close to me, as if I could hide her away from the pain and heartbreak.

The pain was something Sakura - that no one - should have had to go through.

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

There was a scratching noise as the forgotten clay bird hopped towards me, its tiny claws scraping against the hard floor. When the annoying noise halted and I felt a slight tug at my trouser leg, I ignored the bird.

"_So, are you ready for the execution thing, yeah?"_ It asked and I continued to ignore it. After a few moments of tense silence, it tugged at my trouser leg again.

"I am ready," I answered.

It chuckled darkly and began to hop up my leg. _"You didn't get attached to that girl, yeah? We don't need another love struck teenager."_

"Someone like me would never become attached," I told it sharply.

"_That little kiss thing was all an act then. You never struck me as the sadistic heart breaker type…yeah." _The voice trailed off.

"What has Leader said?" I interrupted him coldly.

"_Leader's already recruiting for a new member. Though, it was a good thing he picked you first. If it was anyone else we'd be fucked…yeah," _The bird commented. I supposed it was the closest to a compliment I would ever get but it had no effect on me.

"_I'm going to watch the execution. It'll be kind of funny watching it all play out," _The bird chuckled again.

"…Haruko-san…do anything…all the time…the execution," The Kyuubi's loud voice reached us in the cell.

I let the darkness swallow me up whole, waiting for the moment I would be let out. Tomorrow was coming much faster than I had anticipated and it would bring with it a grand finale to end a final tale.

* * *

**Next (last) chapter preview: Breaking Ties**

"If it makes you feel any better, close your eyes when it happens. Then you won't see him go down."

**_I guess she really couldn't bring herself to come in the end._**

_I can't lose you, I can't, I can't, **I can't**, because I-_

**"Hurry the fuck up!"**

* * *

**A/N:  
**Holy shnaikies! Selandora's finally finished Defining Evil and it's time to celebrate with the second last chapter. I know it's ironic that I'm celebrating Itachi's execution but YAHA! It's done! Finished! Well, technically it's not finished because the sequel's going to come out... 

I love Itachi. He's so much fun to write, even though fun and Itachi should never be in the same sentence. After the Defining series is done (series? Maybe...) I want to try my hand at saisaku or narusaku. Screw schoolwork, fanfiction is English GCSE prep :)

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional one you must fear who is now ecstatic over Defining Duty)**


	15. Waking Up : Itachi

**Chapter 15: Waking Up**

_This is the way that we love_

_Like it's forever_

_- _Happy Ending by Mika

* * *

_**Haruno Sakura**_

I woke up to a sunny day with a cool breeze that caressed the curtains as it passed before lazily circling the room only to move on again. I woke up to the sounds of the village people laughing and gossiping as they ate breakfast. I woke up to the mouth watering smell of ramen and freshly made dango as it wafted through the open window.

I woke up in tears because I woke up.

* * *

_**Hokage Tsunade**_

"Nara-san, please tell your team to come to execution bay number four at ten o clock," I ordered the slouched shinobi in front of me, rustling through important papers in an attempt to look busy as I did so.

"Ahh…excuse me, Hokage-sama, is it really necessary we all go? Sakura-san and Naruto are quite emotional and it would be troublesome if we had to deal with them." Shikamaru asked and I shot him a piercing glare.

I set my papers down with a bang and he blinked at the sudden noise. I told him angrily, "I know my student well and she most definitely would not have an emotional breakdown at an execution. Do not underestimate her or Naruto or else you will not be in a team with them again."

Leaning back in my chair, I swung my feet up onto the wooden desk. I finished, "All of your team members are to see this mission through to the end. You are dismissed."

Shikamaru disappeared with a lazy spiralling cloud of smoke that drifted up listlessly to the ceiling. I picked up my sake saucer and downed it in one go, savouring the liquid velvet as it slid down my throat and washed my troubles away.

"_If you truly believe that, then you are the ideal Kage for a place like Konoha."_

The porcelain sake saucer shattered in my hand and the shards cut into my palm. My wounds began to sting.

I wasn't sure if it was only because of the alcohol.

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

"Where the hell is Haruko-san? We were meant to meet up twenty minutes ago!" Tsumon was steadily growing frustrated.

I was the only quiet, reflective one in the room for once. It was my first time to participate an execution but Genma and Tsumon (being experienced ninja) had seen them countless times. I supposed that as a ninja, since you were surrounded by so much death, when you saw a dead person you no longer held the same level of respect or disgust for the corpse.

"Well, for once Mr. Punctual's late," Genma commented before breaking into a wide yawn.

Pale faced, I looked up at him for a moment and then glanced downwards awkwardly. I was dimly aware of how tightly I was clenching my hands but it didn't dawn on me that I should have perhaps tried to calm down. Anxiety began to swamp me and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath in. I didn't think I was being too obvious about being extremely nervous but then again, I never was too good at hiding my emotions. When Genma put a hand on my shoulder, I shot up and almost broke his wrist in two.

"Hey, Naruto-chan, it's okay to be scared. Executions aren't exactly a walk in a park," He murmured to me in an undertone, careful not to let Tsumon hear him. Tsumon had a bit of an anger management problem and was an insensitive bastard so Tsumon would have held no pity for me.

"…how do you do it? How can somebody kill somebody defenceless in cold blood?" I asked Genma in disbelief.

Genma answered, "There are some people who can and some people who can't. It's something you're born with, I guess."

"So you were born with it?" I pressed him and Genma smiled slightly and shrugged.

"I guess so; else I wouldn't have done as many executions as I have. If it makes you feel any better, close your eyes when it happens. Then you won't see him go down," He advised me.

"Oh, finally! There you are!" Tsumon stood up as the door opened to reveal a tired looking Haruko-san.

"You look like shit man," Genma said bluntly, eyeing him with dark brown, sympathetic eyes.

Haruko-san pulled on his ANBU mask and jerked his head towards the doorway. The rest of us followed suit and instantly, there was no more conversation. It was all business now and we had a job to do.

Maybe if I told myself that enough, I would actually begin to believe it.

* * *

_**Haruno Sakura**_

"Sakura-san, Tsunade-sama wants us to go and finish the mission," Shikamaru informed me from where he had made himself at home on my ratty sofa.

I was making myself watery coffee and for a moment, my movements faltered. I accidentally spilled the instant coffee powder all over the counter top and began to clean it up. If Shikamaru noticed, he said nothing.

"When is the execution?" I asked him as coldly as I could. I wanted to try and convince at least one person that Itachi's death wouldn't affect me, though after the breakdown with Naruto outside Konoha that was a failing hope.

"I never said anything about an execution, Sakura-san. How did you gather that?" Shikamaru's tone grew gradually more and more suspicious.

_Shit. _I shrugged and began to pour hot water into my cup, thinking fast. "Well, I just presumed that since we brought him back to Konoha, we would have to witness his execution. We've handed in the mission reports and we have our pay, so to really finish off the mission we would have to see him dea- be executed."

"Well, you're right. The execution is at ten o clock and Tsunade-sama wants us all to be there. Troublesome woman…" He complained, breaking out into a yawn as he finished.

I sat down beside him on the sofa and stared into the surface of the murky brown liquid wordlessly. A long silence fell between us and the sofa squeaked slightly as Shikamaru sat up beside me. He leaned forwards on his knees and clasped his hands together, as if in thought.

He suggested almost reluctantly, "You know, you don't have to go. I could lie to Tsunade-sama and say that I couldn't find you or something equally as troublesome."

His words didn't register until a few moments later and I straightened up, brushing the ragged hair out of my eyes with a hand. I smiled at him with tired eyes and shook my head, feeling utterly artificial. "Its fine, I'll go."

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

We all stood around the door to Itachi's holding cell awkwardly. Well, _I _thought it was pretty awkward anyways. Genma looked as though he hadn't a care in the world and Tsumon looked impatient if anything. An unspoken question hung suspended in the air like a dust particle, _'Who's going to get Itachi?'_

Haruko-san answered the question by sharply jabbing at his own chest. The keys grated in the lock of the metal door and it swung open reluctantly, dragging across the floor with a tortured screech. He took a step inside and left the door open a fraction. When he came back out ten minutes later, he was pulling a blindfolded and gagged Itachi out of the room.

Itachi was struggling against his bonds like a desperate man.

It was as if he had only just realized what the execution meant for him. He was yelling furiously (_screaming even)_ into the dark cloth shoved into his mouth and Haruko-san could barely restrain him.

He writhed like a madman and Haruko-san looked up at us, his cold eyes flashing an order for us to get the convict under control. Tsumon and I immediately rushed to his side, pinning the Uchiha to the floor. I bit down ferociously on the inside of my cheek behind my mask.

I was trying to block out the sounds of his screaming.

"Hurry the fuck up!" I was barely aware I was shouting at Genma now. My cerulean eyes clenched shut in an attempt to forget what I was doing - to forget whom I was dooming.

Genma pulled the senbon from the corner of his mouth and brought out a vial from within his thigh pouch. The emerald liquid inside glinted malevolently in the artificial lighting and he stabbed the senbon into the glass container. Itachi was still shouting, a muffled _no, no, __**NO-**_

And then silence.

Genma pulled the needle out of Itachi only to discard it shortly afterwards. I thought I would be grateful when Itachi's screams were gone, but the accusing silence that followed was a thousand times worse.

* * *

_**Uchiha Sasuke**_

_You should have killed him when you had the chance_.

The thought echoed throughout the chambers of my mind, reverberating off of walls and sneaking into corners; leaving no place for me to hide away from it. I stood up sharply, moving away from the unmade bed I had previously been lying on to head downstairs towards the kitchen.

I snatched an apple from a bowl and bit into it angrily, imagining it was someone else. I closed my mismatched eyes and tried to block out the voices, tried to shut them away. When I opened them again, I was standing face to face with the ghost of my frowning father.

_Why did you leave the job to somebody else? Why did you not avenge me? _He demanded, his cold eyes filled with hatred and disgust. I lashed out at him, only to have my hand slice through nothing and ran out of the room into the narrow hallway.

All of my relatives stood there. They stood in a line, glaring at me with the same crimson Sharingan eyes- Uchiha eyes. Eyes filled with hatred, regret, disgust, disappointment but all seemed to ask the same question.

_Why Sasuke, __**why?**_

I stumbled up the regal staircase, clinging onto the dusty railing. Their voices carried up to the second floor and I instinctively rushed for the bathroom, locking the door behind me. Maybe the nightmares wouldn't follow me, maybe the regret wouldn't swamp me now I was hidden behind a locked door. I gripped the sides of the porcelain sink, as if looking for inspiration in its white depths.

_They're not here_, I told myself. _You're just imagining things._

The faucet shrieked in indignation as I turned it. I cupped my hands beneath it to catch the icy water in my hands, splashing it over my face in a vain attempt to calm myself down. I looked up and into the mirror above the sink.

A pair of blood red Mangekyou eyes stared back. _You are the same as me now, little brother. You have __**betrayed the family**__-_

The mirror shattered with a sickening crunch.

I ignored the blood running down my hand, ignored the shards imbedded deep into my knuckles. The remains of the mirror were scattered around me on the floor like all the unfulfilled promises of the Uchiha clan (_all the could-have-beens or should-have-beens_) and they shouted at me, screamed to be justified.

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

Itachi had started struggling again and finally Haruko-san had given Genma the order to block off all of Itachi's movement. We now had to resort to piggybacking Itachi and rotating him every now and then. I wished that Haruko-san had given the order for Genma to silence him as well. His screams sounded like a soul shattering and I wasn't sure whose soul was shattering anymore, his or mine. As Itachi's screams escalated in pitch and loudness, Genma finally had enough and stabbed his needle into a point below Itachi's neck that would temporarily render his vocal chords useless.

I half expected Haruko-san to be angry that Genma had acted without first asking but he said nothing. I supposed that we were all relieved that he was no longer screaming.

Tsumon stopped and his eyes flashed towards me, insinuating that I should take Itachi now. It took a while but I managed to awkwardly get Itachi onto my back. His arms flopped uselessly over my shoulders and his breathing was ragged in my ear, his only audible protest.

I kept my voice low so that the others wouldn't hear me, "Hey, Itachi, don't hold this against me or anything right? I'm just doing my job."

Itachi's breath caught in his throat for a moment.

"Sakura-chan really loves you, you know that? She'd probably kill me if she knew I was telling you this but since you're going to die, you need at least one person to love you. She's going to be at the execution," I continued quietly.

"I don't know if you're anything like Kisame but…I guess it took me a long time to realize that you Akatsuki are actually human. A cloak with clouds and a slashed headband doesn't make you any less a person. I don't know why you killed your clan or why you left Sasuke alive but I'm thanking you for what you've done for Sakura. Before you came along, she was so quiet and so broken…" I trailed off, not really knowing what to say next.

A hand touched my shoulder and I looked up, seeing Haruko-san in front of me. A building behind him loomed towards us, hostile black tinted windows glared at us where we stood and an unwelcoming door stood aloof. Haruko-san motioned for me to give Itachi to him and I did so reluctantly. We approached the door and Tsumon opened it for Haruko-san. The moment I took a step inside, an unsettling knowledge settled over me.

This was the place where we were to kill the second last Uchiha.

* * *

_**Nara Shikamaru**_

"Where's everyone else?" Kakashi asked me in an undertone. The waiting room was deathly silent, as it was the first time for most of us here to witness an execution.

I told him, "Naruto's a part of the ANBU squad in charge of the execution so he'll come when Itachi does."

This seemed to shock the Kyuubi's ex sensei because he didn't say anything for the next few moments. When he finally spoke, his voice betrayed no emotion, "I didn't think Naruto would be a part of an execution squad. His sense of justice would clash awfully with that."

"Tsunade-sama told him that if he was to become Hokage, then he had to participate in at least one execution. It's a load of bullshit if you ask me," I lit up a fag and sighed, watching the smoke spiral lazily towards the ceiling.

Kakashi then questioned, "Do you know where Sakura and Sasuke are?"

I shrugged and lied effortlessly, "I couldn't find Sakura this morning so I couldn't tell her to come for the execution. Sasuke knows so he'll probably be here soon."

Just as I said that, Sasuke slipped into the room silently. Kakashi's single eye seemed to penetrate into my mind as he tried to decipher what was hidden there. I raised a quizzical eyebrow at him, removing my fag from my mouth with two practiced fingers. Kakashi said nothing but someone else spoke for him.

"The ANBU squad is now here with the criminal. The Uchiha will be executed shortly; everyone please follow me to execution bay number 4…" A kunoichi informed us and one by one, we trickled out of the room reluctantly to follow her.

Glancing around the gradually emptying room, I realized Sakura still hadn't come. I sighed and dropped my fag onto the floor, grinding it into the linoleum with the heel of my shoe.

* * *

_**Hatake Kakashi**_

It was kind of funny.

For ninja, there were so many synonyms for the word _kill;_ execute, terminate, destroy, vanquish. And there were so many for the word _human_; target, client, criminal, hell we even gave them numbers.

I watched the execution squad discuss something a few metres away from Itachi. None of them looked nervous, except for Naruto and I only knew that because I had been his teacher for so long. He always tried too hard to hide his negative emotions, which was what made them so obvious in the end. His hands were clenched so tightly that I could actually see a trickle of blood coming from them and his movements were mechanical and rigid.

The order they had been given was to _terminate the criminal_.

They could very well have been told to kill Uchiha Itachi but that was the biggest mistake a person in charge could make. The word kill, a word so simple and cruel, instantly conflicted with a person's sense of right and wrong so it was substituted with words like annihilate, to make it less humane. They didn't even give the _criminal_ a name, because the moment you put a name to a person, it made them human. And that was the last thing any sane person would want to do.

Kill another human.

Naruto seemed to see through the illusion, as he always had done. His sense of justice was untainted, despite the many years of suffering and lack of proper parentage. He wouldn't last long in ANBU and I gave him a couple months more at most before he resigned. He was the only one who seemed to realize, 'I'm killing another human.'

It was the reasoning that ninja superiors tried to erase and the one thing that stood in Naruto's way to becoming Hokage.

How could he become Hokage if he couldn't send out thousands of ninja to die to protect his own country?

Itachi had been forced to his knees and his head was bowed low. A black blindfold around his eyes blocked his vision and his hands were bound behind his back, though from his complete lack of movement I realized they didn't really need the binds. A familiar masked man, Genma, walked towards him, followed by another dark haired man I couldn't identify. Naruto and their squad leader stood to the side, waiting for the execution to commence.

The squad leader read out a list of Itachi's crimes in a detached, cold voice. _Massacre, treason, desertion, murder…_

My mind began to wander slightly as the list grew and grew until the loud click of a door being closed drew the attention of every person in the room. Sakura silently walked towards me, her eyes downcast. She said nothing as she came in and the squad leader picked up where he left off, finishing the introductory speech. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye and tapped her on the wrist gently.

She nodded mechanically and kept her eyes downcast. I began to realize, maybe I was being selfish, maybe we were _both _being selfish for not wanting to witness another execution. Sakura was no longer the twelve year old genin whose heart had been broken too many times to count and I was no longer her sensei. I hadn't done anything to hide her from harsh reality when she was my student but even though I wanted to now, it was far too late. The black haired nin knelt down to help restrain Itachi in case he struggled and Genma pulled out a kunai from his pouch.

It was the only kunai Genma ever had on hand.

* * *

_**Haruno Sakura**_

_Don't look at Itachi. If you don't see him die, it won't have happened. Don't look up…_

Kakashi's calloused hand squeezed mine and I looked at him, trying to block out the sight of a weak and bound Itachi in my peripheral vision. He told me quietly, "If he really means that much to you, you should at least watch him die."

I said nothing but Kakashi's words rang true in the hollows of my mind. They reverberated, growing louder with every repeat until every thought was fighting for dominance until everything contradicted and conflicted against each other.

_Don't look up at Itachi. _**If you really love him, you'll watch him die. **_I'm scared. I don't want to see him dead. _**If you don't watch, do you mean to say Itachi means nothing to you? **_He was never meant to mean anything to me. We were never supposed to mean anything to each other. _**Are you just going to forget everything that happened between the two of you? **_It'll be for the best._** You're being a coward. You're running away from everything again. **_I've been strong all these years; isn't it fair that I be allowed to be weak for once?_

**Is it fair to Itachi though?**

Metal glinted and my eyes instantly snapped to Itachi. I felt my vision blur and burn as I looked upon him silently.

He looked so pathetic. He looked as though he had given up all dignity, as if his personality had trickled through a hole while our backs were turned. And it hurt. It hurt to see only a shell of what he had once been. His arrogance, his _pride_, had all drained out of him and there had been nothing to prevent it.

_No, no, __**this isn't Itachi**__, he's __**never**__ looked so weak, he's never been so vulnerable, his pride would never let him be degraded like __**this,**__ he's always been __**strong, **__he's always been __**invincible**__-_

Genma pulled back Itachi's head and placed the kunai over his throat. My jade eyes began to well up with the tears that Itachi would never have shed even in the face of his own death. My hand clenched Kakashi's tightly, this couldn't be happening, this couldn't be **happening-**

_I can't lose you, I can't, I can't, __**I can't**__ because I-_

Hands tightened around Itachi to keep him in place.

_Because I-_

Genma's hand gripped his kunai handle.

_Because I love you._

The kunai flashed.

I didn't want to hear the thump that followed because I knew that when it came, I would be hearing the sound of a dead body hitting the floor. I didn't want to see Genma's kunai silently retreat into the recesses of his pouch because that would mean that it was done, that it was over. I didn't want to watch the blood pool around a gaping open wound and onyx hair splayed limply about a blindfolded face because that would mean…it would mean…

* * *

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

I half expected Itachi to pick himself up and glare menacingly at us but when I saw his lifeblood trickle out slowly about his body, I knew that he wasn't going to. I was blinking rapidly and glanced up at the ceiling as if to find some long lost inspiration in its pale depths. A tense silence filled the room and it was only when a quiet, sickening squelch filled the air something seemed to snap in all of us.

Sasuke was the first one to leave the room. Then Ino and Hinata left, Shikamaru following closely behind the two of them. Tsumon and Genma dragged a lifeless corpse across the floor, not caring that the blood that wept from it stained a crimson path but Kakashi and Sakura remained where they were.

Kakashi looked as though he wanted to say something but didn't. He turned away from her and slipped like a shadow out of the room. I walked towards Sakura quietly but her eyes never left the trail of blood that led to the man she had once loved.

She was as still as a statue and had done nothing since Itachi died. She hadn't even shed a single tear. I pulled off my mask as I approached her and stood at her side silently, to be there for her when things finally sunk in.

"_I love him, Naruto."_

I don't know what happened, but suddenly I was the one crying. I cried because Sakura wasn't crying because I knew she was broken inside (_broken again)_ and that knowledge made my heart break. Everything Itachi had helped to mend, he had only broken again. Sakura's heart had been ripped in two and I wasn't sure how much more she could take and I was so…so _scared _for her.

I waited for her to break out into tears but she turned around and headed towards the door without a word. She paused, not even looking back at me and murmured, "Let's go, Naruto."

* * *

_**Uchiha Itachi**_

I watched the pink haired medic nin leave the room silently. I had half expected her to burst into tears or try and prevent the execution from happening, but she hadn't. It was strange to see such maturity coming from the unreasonable kunoichi but it certainly wasn't unwelcome.

"**You idiot, can't you see I'm crying for you?" **The raw emotion in her voice was imprinted into the back of my mind and the feel of her warm tears had been burned into my fingertips. It left a strange and unpleasant taste in the back of my throat that surely would come to pass.

All of our ties had been cut with the blade of Genma's kunai and a high level genjutsu. Everything had now reverted to the way it had been and should have been before this mess, which meant that she and I were strangers and enemies again.

"_Hey, Itachi-san, you have to hurry up and get out of there. Leader says that he's going to dispel the genjutsu on you in fifteen minutes," _A small clay ladybird on my shoulder murmured into my ear.

I turned to leave the execution room briskly, my eyes gleaming through the eyeholes of a certain ANBU captain's mask.

* * *

**A/N**:  
Soo...that's it guys. Muahaha. I owned you. I PLAYED YOU THE FOOLS YOU- this is highly inappropriate and unprofessional so please forgive me for being an amateur. 

I have a feeling this was a lot better than the original. I love this story but I guess it's finally time for me to move on (move on?!) but hey, I need to get this plotline out of my hair so I can start the sequel. If you guys are interested, the summary for Defining Duty is up and if you maybe haven't guessed it's the sequel. Everything confusing here will finally be explained in the next one but it might piss you guys off slightly.

Thank you for reading, your reviews have made me really happy. I don't think I'd be able to finish it without all of you helping me along and it always made me smile when I read one. I would like to thank the people who've been reading since the days of Never Ending Rainfall and thank you guys for all the respect and support you've given me. (this is getting really sappy. I'm stopping now.) Just in case you were curious...

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How much I love this story - More than the words, that's for sure.

**Selandora (the sickeningly emotional undeniably sexy one you all must fear might just be in tears very soon.)**


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